The Infinite Loops: A Tale of two Realms
by TokoWH
Summary: Two separate realms are stuck in a time loop with only a few of the beings living there aware of it happening. Though initially distraught from having to do everything over again and again, soon enough they begin to resort to some interesting ways to blow off steam and keep their sanity. Though no one knows how it happened, only one thing is for certain. Hilarity quickly ensues.
1. And so it begins

**(A/N: Drabbles/short stories beta-read by Riverstyxx. Further comments on how this fic works at the end.)**

* * *

**Legends Loop 1.1:**

Spyro wasn't sure how it had happened. Maybe with his last breath before he had been dragged off to Ancestors-knew-where, Malefor had cursed him as a last act of vengeance. All Spyro knew was that, from the moment he'd left the swamp to shortly after he had repaired the world, he was reliving over and over again the multitude of trials he had endured during the struggle against the Dark Master.

How many times now had it been? Three. Of that, he was certain.

Though at first he had almost lost his will at the thought of having to relive these hardships over and over again, he had managed to press on in the hope that, sooner or later, this curse would wear off. Thanks to keeping his memories, things were a bit easier due to already being well-trained in the four primary elements, and he managed to get things done moderately quicker than he had on his first 'adventure'.

However, despite the new free time he had, he had yet to find a way out.

"Geez, no matter how many times we end up here, it gets no less freaky."

Spyro didn't respond to his adopted brother as he hopped onto another floating platform, his determined expression unchanging. Sparx seemed to be somewhat affected by this curse he was under, in that occasionally he would keep his memories of what was happening in the 'loops'. Out of the three 'loops' he had gone through so far, Sparx had been 'awake' for two of them.

Part of Spyro was somewhat grateful for the fact that Sparx didn't always remember. Even though having someone with him who knew what was happening helped him keep his sanity, at least Sparx wouldn't have to endure as much as _he_ would.

Sparx flew in front of him. Despite his usual snarky and cowardice nature, there was an expression of concern on his face. "You alright, bro?"

Spyro still didn't say anything. He knew exactly why Sparx had asked him that, and quickly pushed it to the back of his mind. This whole experience had been maddening, yet somehow he had managed to keep a hold on himself. Fighting Gaul, the Destroyer, Malefor, and even restoring the world several times now, he had yet to break down.

However, jumping down onto the final platform, Spyro shivered. This was _always _the hardest part of each loop for him.

"Persistent little fellow, aren't you? No mercy this time."

Spyro narrowed his eyes as an adult black dragoness flew down in front of him. Despite how many times he had gone through this loop, seeing Cynder back in her adult form, when she was under the control of Malefor, had always felt like a massive punch in the gut. The first time he had looped, he'd had to fight back tears as he forced himself to fight her.

His only solace was the fact that, unlike Sparx, Cynder had yet to be 'awake' during one of these loops. At least he didn't have to worry about her being consciously aware while going through these nightmares again. As the dark dragoness went on about the return of the Dark Master, only one thought crossed Spyro's mind.

_'Don't worry, Cynder... I promise you, I'll figure a way out of this. We'll have the peace we so rightfully deserve. Until then... Please, just don't wake up...'_

* * *

**Classic Loop 1.1:**

Spyro wasn't exactly sure how it had happened. Somehow, it was like someone kept hitting the rewind button on his life. One day, not so long ago, he had just beaten the Sorcerer and was relaxing on Dragon Shores. The next, he was reliving his adventures throughout his life over and over again. At first it didn't seem so bad, getting to redo his most awesome moments over again.

But now, as he walked along the path to _that _dreaded task for one of the orbs, he was starting to get increasingly annoyed.

_"Leeeeeets doooo the tiiiiiiime warp agaaaaaaaaaain!" _Sparx sang, flying by Spyro's side as he hummed to himself.

"You're not helping, Sparx."

_"C'mon, Spyro! I'm just trying to lighten the mood a little."_

Spyro shook his head. Thanks to Sparx's special connection with him, while everyone else had lost their memories throughout each 'loop', as Spyro called them, Sparx was one of the few who had managed to keep them. As Spyro watched his best friend sing to himself, he was still wondering if that was a good or a bad thing.

With a sigh, he walked over to the super spring power-up. Walking through it and landing on the platform above, Spyro came face to face with the Breeze Builder he dreaded seeing each loop.

"Spyro! Thank goodness you're here! The Land Blubbers—"

Spyro tuned Fisher out. He had heard this speech more times than he would have liked. 'The Land Blubbers are jerks, hid my gears, I'm too lazy to get them, please help!'

Spyro sighed. Despite the many times he had done this, he still hadn't gotten the hang of it. He growled. _'If I have to hear 'Trouble with the trolley, eh?' _one_ more freaking time...__'_

"So, Spyro! Will you please help me?"

Spyro snapped back to reality as Fisher finished. Spyro shot the Breeze Builder a glare, an orb held in his hands...wings...whatever. That was the ransom for this mission.

After the second loop of having to go through this infuriating task, Spyro had rage-quit and hoped that missing one of the orbs wouldn't matter too much. _Unfortunately_, as Spyro soon learned, they were the only way to Dragon Shores and back to the Artisan Realm, which meant he didn't have much choice in the matter.

Spyro glanced at Fisher's eyes, wide and pleading. In the back of his mind, he somehow knew that Fisher knew just how horrific this task was, and that was why he didn't want to do it. Spyro sighed. What exactly was he supposed to do, though? He couldn't just forcefully take the orb from him.

...Could he?

A blast of fire bellowed out as Fisher went sailing out of a nearby window and into a pool of water. Spyro held onto the orb firmly as he turned to head back down to the platform below. Sparx flew in front of him, giving him a stern glare.

_"Geez. Harsh, much?"_

"Sparx, do you have _any _idea how hard this thing is? I've had to do this trolley thing three times now because of this time warp stuff. _Not _counting the times I've messed up. Once we figure out what's going on and fix it, _then _I'll do this again for the final time. Until then, I _refuse _to do this nightmare anymore!"

* * *

**Classic Loop 1.2:**

Sparx had awakened with a yawn. Bright day in the Artisan world? Check. News crew interviewing some elders about the Dragon Realms? Check. Giant green bolts from the sky about to turn them into stone in three, two, one...

_CLASH!_

Check.

Yep. They had looped again.

Sparx stretched as he watched the dragons fly around in terror. After the fifth time, it had kind of lost the impact it had originally had. As the last dragon in sight turned to stone, Sparx rolled his eyes.

_"Well, I'm pretty sure we know what to do at this point."_

"Got that right! Gnasty Gnorc is going down!"

Sparx paused at the voice before raising an eyebrow. Turning around, his eyes went wide at the sight in front of him. Where Spyro normally was supposed to be now stood a red dragon, almost identical to Spyro in body structure outside of the more curved snout. Sparx reeled back a bit in surprise.

_"W-wha!? Who are you!?"_

The red dragon seemed hurt by Sparx' question as he gave him an annoyed glance. "What's wrong, Sparx? Don't you remember your best bud Flame?"

Sparx was silent for a few seconds. Flame... Wasn't he that dragon Spyro had rescued from Gnasty when Red attacked? The heck was he doing there? Where was Spyro?

Before Sparx could ask any questions, though, Flame had already darted off towards the first dragon statue. As the dragon was freed from his stone prison, Flame smirked.

"Where's Gnasty Gnorc? His butt is _begging _to be flame broiled!"

As Flame and 'that first dragon', as Spyro and he had taken to calling him, started to talk, Sparx scratched his head.

_"Well... This...is new,"_ he muttered. Despite the odd circumstances, Sparx was sure of one thing: this was going to be one _interesting _loop.

* * *

Spyro sighed as he laid in his bed... Or rather, his bed in _this _loop, anyway. At first it had seemed odd, and part of him had been hopeful these loops had finally broken, but it quickly became apparent that was not the case. Rather, it seemed like these loops weren't always going to be the same thing over and over, a fact that he had realized early on in the morning when he'd woken up in the home of a certain other dragon.

A door creaked and the sound of falling water was heard, followed by a loud _clank_.

"Spyro!"

Several footsteps were heard as the door to 'his room' swung open. In the door frame, a wet pink dragoness stood. Spyro stared bemusedly at his 'sister' as the dragoness picked the bucket up off her head and glared at him.

When Spyro had realized he was going to have to live with Ember in this loop, at first he had panicked. But once he had realized that he was supposedly her brother, and wasn't going to be performing the actions that had caused her to fall head-over-heels for him, he had calmed down considerably.

Ember growled before heading off to get a towel. Spyro laughed as he laid back in 'his' bed. After going through his adventures five times, counting when he had originally done them, a break from them sounded pretty good about now...

Though, he pitied whoever Ember's actual brother was when he got to that trolley.

* * *

**Legends Loop 1.2:**

Spyro sighed as he steadied his nerves. Despite being the fifth time he had done this, standing atop the Well of Souls still intimidated him greatly. The Night of Eternal Darkness was upon them...again. And Gaul was waiting for him down below.

"Freaky. No matter how many times we visit this place, it still gives me the creeps," Sparx said, shivering a bit as he floated close to his brother.

"At least you've only had to redo it three times so far," Spyro said with a sigh.

Spyro shook his head, hunching down as he prepared to jump. Before he did, however, Sparx quickly flew in front of his face. "Woah, hold on a second, bro! I just thought of something!"

Spyro was surprised by Sparx's sudden actions, and he caught himself before he jumped. Narrowing his eyes in slight annoyance, knowing that they didn't have much time before Malefor escaped, Spyro glanced at Sparx.

"What is it, Sparx?" he asked, a little irritably.

Sparx crossed his arms, apparently annoyed by Spyro's annoyance. "Well, you know how we usually fly down there, Gaul zaps you with that staff and causes you to lose your powers, then we all get trapped in a giant time popsicle?"

"Yeah?"

"Why do you let him do that?"

That question caught Spyro off guard, and he raised an eyebrow at his brother. "Huh?"

"You heard me," Sparx said, floating closer towards Spyro. "Why do you let him do that? I mean, you know it's coming, so why do you let him take away your powers? Wouldn't it be easier to smash the staff before he does it, so you don't have to spend five hours smacking away at him with your attacks?"

Spyro paused as he thought about Sparx's logic. It made sense. Fighting Gaul without his powers had always been a pain, no matter how many times he had done it. In honesty...Spyro had never thought about it before. Throughout the five loops he'd done so far, he had always followed them from memory so he didn't cause any major alterations in case the loops broke.

However, if he _did _make sure Gaul didn't steal his powers, how much would actually change? Even if he wasn't thrown into the Convexity beam and became Dark Spyro, Malefor was still supposed to escape on this night, and he would still have to use his Dragon Time to save Sparx, Cynder, and himself...

A determined look appeared on Spyro's face. It was time for some science.

* * *

"So, whelp—"

"Yeah, yeah. Night of Eternal Darkness, everything's hopeless, blah blah, get to the zapping!"

Gaul paused, but quickly growled at Sparx interrupting him. Despite the seriousness of the situation, having done this five times already (and seeing the confused look on Cynder's face), Spyro couldn't suppress a chuckle. This caused Gaul to become more irritated. As he reached for that damn staff that had caused Spyro so many problems before, Spyro quickly returned to the situation at hand.

Just as Gaul went to raise it above his head, a shard of ice struck the green crystal atop it, shattering it and causing the King of Apes to drop the staff. Gaul growled as he shook his throbbing hand. He glared at Spyro, who had a smug look upon his face.

"Clever, dragon. Very clever," Gaul said before he threw his arms back and three metal blades shot out atop each his hands.

Spyro jumped back as Gaul shot a green beam out of the emerald he had in place of his eye. Rolling out of the way as Gaul charged in a spinning tornado of blades, Spyro shot a ball of fire at him.

It seemed that, since he'd managed to keep his powers for this fight, Gaul had no reason to hold back against him. Regardless, at least this hopefully meant that the fight would go by much quicker. And who knows, maybe he wouldn't have to deal with that pesky super-powered evil side this time around.

* * *

**Classic Loop 1.3:**

Spyro was ecstatic as he sat outside the portal to Gnasty's Lair. This was the seventh loop, and he had learned something rather interesting in the previous one.

You see, each dragon had his own personal 'pocket space' they kept their mounds of gems in so they didn't have to lug giant bags around. At first, Spyro hadn't noticed anything _too _out of the ordinary the first couple of loops, but by the sixth loop he had noticed his gem horde had became so big that he couldn't possibly fit anymore into it if he tried. It seemed that Sparx and himself weren't the _only _things that carried over each loop.

_"This is going to be freaking awesome!" _Sparx exclaimed, looking at Spyro with wide, excited eyes.

Spyro smirked. Though he hadn't liked the idea of having to forcefully get rid of his gems to make room for this, he knew in the end it would be so worth it. With a deep breath to calm himself, Spyro jumped through the portal.

Landing into the all too familiar arena, Spyro looked up to see Gnasty's ugly mug. Not wasting a second, Spyro quickly went ahead with what he was planning.

"So, dragon! You've finally made it! I may have made the mistake of letting you escape under my radar, but no matter, I will finish you off here an—"

BAM!

Gnasty was interrupted when he was smacked in the face by a miniature missile. "Ow! Wha—_what the—?"_

BAM!

"Ugh! Hey, _qu—!_"

BAM!

Sparx was laughing his butt off as Spyro kept pulling the Professor's miniature missiles out of his pocket space. He was going to have to remember to thank the Professor when he met him in this loop.

Putting another one in his mouth and lighting the fuse, Spyro shot it at Gnasty. The blast struck the Gnorc in the face again, and he twirled around for a few seconds as his eyes rolled in his head. Swearing he heard birds chirping, Gnasty slipped into unconsciousness and collapsed.

Spyro fell to the ground as he roared with laughter, rolling around for a few seconds before he looked up at Sparx. The dragonfly looked at him with a bemused expression. _"Well, that made the battle certainly easier. Wonder how else we can cheap out these battles?"_

Spyro picked himself up, looking at Sparx with a grin. "I have a few ideas, but let's not use the miniature missiles again. That made the battle go by way too quickly."

With one final laugh, Spyro used his atlas book to leave the realm. Things were quiet for a few seconds before a thief holding a key popped out from behind a door.

_"Nyan-nyan-nyan..._Nyan-nyan?"

* * *

**Legends Loop 1.3:**

Spyro's body was tense as he stood outside the gates to the Dark Master's lair. Despite being the tenth time he was about to do this, it made it no less easy, nor did it make the battle with him any easier. He looked back to Cynder; she was just as tense. At least she still had yet to realize that they were trapped in this time warp, so she didn't have to experience the same events over and over.

The same could _not _be said for Sparx. He had been awake for six of these ten loops now, and was actually starting to become quite bold now that he knew what to expect. He'd actually wanted to come along to Malefor's lair to see the battle go on in person for a change, a chance Spyro was not yet willing to take.

Regardless, he got back to the task at hand. Quickly handling the last of Malefor's minions, he knew it was time. Time to fight this damned dragon once again, restore the world...and be forced to go through it all over again.

Taking a deep breath, he looked back at Cynder. She was always shaking badly at this part, and it made him frown to see her so scared. Without even thinking, he leant forward and nuzzled her cheek, the action surprising her greatly.

"U-uh, th-thanks Spyro. I-I don't think this is the appropriate time for that, though."

Spyro smiled as Cynder looked away, a blush on her cheeks. Spyro had attempted to see if he could get together with her in this loop before he had to repair the world, but so far all of his advances had only caused her to quickly change the subject as a luminous blush appeared on her cheeks. Though it was a bit sad that he wouldn't get to be with her again until these loops were over, it was rather cute to see the normally confident dragoness so flustered.

Still, he knew her words were true. Taking another deep breath, Spyro and Cynder opened the giant door. As they slowly opened, a puff of smoke escaped Spyro's nostrils.

_'Okay... Let's get this over with.'_

Had it not been for Cynder walking in cautiously every time so far, Spyro would have charged in and seen if he could shut Malefor up before he attempted to turn Cynder on him. Even though he knew she would be alright shortly after, it hurt him every time.

As they walked in, the lights in the room lit up...and Spyro's jaw promptly dropped as his eyes went wide.

"So, you've finally made it!" a surprisingly irritating voice said, _much _higher and scratchier than anything Malefor had ever sounded like. "Well, you are too late! The Destroyer is on his way here as we speak! The world is doomed! _Mwahahahaha_!"

Cynder hunched down, growling as she glared at the monster who had tormented her in her early years. Spyro still had his jaw dropped as he struggled to come up with _any _words for the bizarre sight in front of him.

Where there was normally supposed to be giant sadistic purple dragon, there now stood a short orange..._thing _with a single horn on its head. The figure scoffed as it threw its robe back and pointed its rod at the two dragons.

"Well, then, dragons! If you honestly think you can stop me, Ripto, the Dark Master, then go ahead and try! You're both doomed either way! _Mwahahahahaaaa!_"

Spyro had no words. In all these loops, this had to be the most _bizarre _one yet.

_'Now I'm beginning to regret not letting Sparx come with me... He's _never _going to believe this...'_

* * *

**(A/N: And there we have it. The beginning of a mini side project I plan on doing between Scattered Embers and The Holiday Chronicles.**

**This series is based off a popular new trend going around the Fanfiction scene started by the FF.N user Innortal. Basically, a collection of drabbles/one-shots, as the popular (and lengthy) explanation goes...**

**Nobody knows how the loops happened.**

**They tend involve a complete 'reset' of the series, with only the 'loopers' keeping their memories in between loops. One, or in rare cases, several loopers are called "Anchors" (In this case, the Anchors in this fic/one-shot collection are 'Classic' Spyro and 'Classic' Sparx in the 'classic' world, and 'Legend' Spyro in the 'legend' world), which means they are the first ones to loop and will always retain their memories from every loop.**

**Occasionally, people close to the Anchors will also keep their memories between loops, as with the case with 'Legend' Sparx. Generally, this only happens rarely at first, but quickly becomes more common as the loops go on.**

**The resets aren't always ****_exact _****replicas, though. Sometimes, the loop's history will differ greatly from what happened in canon, as with the case with Flame replacing Spyro as the protagonist for a loop. (And, depending on who you ask, Flame and Ember being siblings. Personally, I tend to view them as brother and sister. Sue me for being different. /shot)**

**On rare occasions, "Cross-Over" or "Fusion" loops can happen. These can involve the home loopers having a guest along for the ride, or another character replacing a canon character. (As is the case in Legends Loop 1.3)**

**I should note: I do have some cross-over loops with other series planned, but regardless I'm going to keep this in the main section because the focus will almost always be Spyro. I've seen other people do that with their loop fics, so unless I get a note from an FF.N admin telling me to change the category, I don't plan on changing that stance anytime soon.**

**Vacation Loops are where the Anchor (or other loopers) decide to say 'screw it' and let off steam by doing whatever crazy stuff comes to mind. Generally, there's little or no attempt to maintain the original timeline.**

**Loop duration is variable, and generally associated with the series in question. For the Spyro loops, for Classic Spyro it's shortly after he's beaten the Sorcerer from Shadow Legacy, and for Legends Spyro it's about an hour after he repairs the world after the events of 'Dawn of the Dragon'... Or, of course, until either of them die. Whichever comes first.**

**When it comes to the 'original five loopers', that honor goes to Ranma Saotome, Lina Inverse, Shinji Ikari, Harry Potter, and Naruto Uzumaki. I only really know two of those five, but I felt like I should bring this up because if any of them****_do_****appear in a cross-over loop, they'll be ****_vastly _****different from how they are in canon due to being 'veterans', so to speak.**

**Generally, more experienced loopers tend to be rather stir crazy at this point. Usually, hilarity ensues pretty quickly.**

**... And that's pretty much 'The Infinite Loops' in a nut-shell. When I saw this, I knew I ****_had _****to do this with Spyro. Granted, TLoS will likely be much more serious in tone for several loops until the characters get used to it, but that also allows me to explore the more 'fridge horror' aspects of such a plot in a setting that can cause unintentional pain to some...**

**Also, generally 'The Infinite Loops' tend to be collab/community projects, so I'm going to see if I can get any of my friends to join in on this. I might also start up a new Forum in place of my current one for this for anyone else who wants to join in.**

**Anyways, for the names of these particular loops...**

**Legend Loops:**

**1.1: The Promise**

**1.2: The usual way isn't always the best way.**

**1.3: The Legend of Spyro: Ripto's Rage**

**Classic Loops:**

**1.1: Trouble with the dragon, eh?**

**1.2: Flame the Dragon**

**1.3: Feed it a missile.**


	2. We are not alone

**(Drabbles beta-read by Riverstyxx. Further comments at the end of the 'chapter'.)**

* * *

**Classic Loop 1.4:**

Spyro smirked. This was his fiftieth loop, and he was getting rather good at all the things he had done on his adventures by this point. It had actually started to get a bit boring, as the battles he had normally found challenging were now over in almost a matter of minutes. Because of this, though, Spyro had spent the last few loops doing something different.

Throughout his later adventures in the 'original timeline', as he was calling it now, Spyro had stumbled across some rather interesting abilities. While most dragons could only shoot fire, Spyro found that he could wield multiple other elements most dragons couldn't. He wasn't exactly sure why this was the case; maybe it had something to do with purple dragons being extremely adept in magic, as he learned when the Sorcerer had attacked, but that was beside the point. What he _did _figure out eventually, though, was that, despite starting his adventure with just fire in the original timeline, these abilities carried over with each loop.

As such, Spyro had decided to see what it would be like if he used a single different element other than fire for his adventures. The electricity loop hadn't been all that different from the main timeline, though seeing Ripto twitching on the ground had been hilarious. The ice loop had been more or less the same, but instead of Ripto twitching on the ground he'd been turned into a raptor popsicle. The water loop had been rather challenging, since water didn't do much damage, but in the end Spyro had managed to pull through. Surprisingly, despite not technically being an element, that one loop where he'd only used Dragon Kata had been rather easy.

But this loop... This loop had been a thing. Sparx had told him he was crazy when he first suggested it, and there had been times where he'd thought he wouldn't make it, but through sheer dumb determination, Spyro had pulled through.

Now standing in front of the 'hulked out' Sorcerer, as Spyro had started calling him, he had a hard time keeping a straight face over what was about to happen.

"I am the only real dragon in the Dragon Realms!"

"Really? Because the other dragons seem pretty real to me."

Spyro suppressed a laugh as the Sorcerer growled. As the Sorcerer shot a blast of dark magic at him, Spyro rolled out of the way and smirked. _'This is going to be hilarious!'_

Without missing a beat, Spyro shot out his 'secret weapon' for this loop. As the attack connected with the Sorcerer, he staggered back in annoyance. Opening his eyes, he saw what had hit him...and promptly glared at Spyro flatly.

"You _must _be joking." he said, expression unchanging. "I am the Sorcerer! The only true dragon in the Dragon Realms! One of the most powerful beings to walk the realms! And you intend to fight me..."

The Sorcerer narrowed his eyes as a translucent orb floated by, popping not a second later.

"...with_ bubbles_!?"

Spyro smirked, a few small bubbles floating out of his nostrils before he shot another stream at the Sorcerer.

* * *

**Legends Loop 1.4:**

Spyro sighed to himself. Another loop. Another time he had repaired the planet and got to spent a few precious moments with Cynder...only to have it all ripped away again as he woke up in the swamp he had once called home. How many times had it been now? Over fifty? He was unsure of the actual number. All he knew was that he was getting really tired of it.

"Hey, Spyro. Dragon fruit."

Spyro glanced over, lying on his back in the muddy ground. 'Dragon fruit' had became his and Sparx's code word so Spyro could figure out if Sparx was 'awake' for this loop or not. So far, for the fifty-plus loops, Sparx had been 'awake' for thirty of them.

Sparx floated down next to Spyro, seeing his depressed state. "...You holding up alright, bro?"

Spyro sighed as he turned onto his side. "When will it end, Sparx? I'm not sure how many more times I can go through all of this..."

Sparx frowned, unable to answer that question. For now, all Sparx could do was float down next to his brother and place a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, c'mon now... It can't last forever. Sooner or later we're gonna get out of this."

Despite his reassurance, Spyro barely stirred. Sparx crossed his arms, looking semi-annoyed. He wasn't exactly sure what else to say as he floated in the air for a few seconds.

"...Ya' know, Spyro. If you're feeling a bit burned out, we don't have to save the world _every _loop. I'm sure those cranky ancestor dragons would understand us wanting to take a vacation for a few loops."

"I can't do that, Sparx," Spyro said flatly as he rolled over to look at his brother. "I mean, what if I do and the loops decide to end? The world would be in massive peril because I did nothing. Besides, Cynder..." Spyro sighed and curled up into a ball. "I can't let the Dark Master keep control of her. Even if she reverts back to _that _each loop... I can't let her suffer like that."

Sparx paused, lowering his head in defeat as he realized he wasn't going to reason with his brother. Turning around, he shrugged. "Well, look on the bright side, then. At least having done this so many times, you've managed to shave a few hours off how long it usually took. At least Cyn doesn't have to stay in 'uber evil dragon' form for as long as she used to."

"Yeah, I suppose..." Spyro said, but paused as Sparx words fully hit him. "Wait, Sparx! What did you just say!?"

Sparx paused, glancing back at Spyro. "I said you've seriously sped up the process. I'm sure Cynder would be grateful for rescuing her somewhat quicker than—hey! Spyro, _wait!_"

Sparx reached out his hand in a vain attempt to stop Spyro. Not a second after Sparx had said that, Spyro had jumped up and darted off into the woods, in the exact direction where they normally fought the apes for the first time. Sparx scratched the back of his head.

"Why do I get the feeling I'm going to regret what I've just said...?"

* * *

"Alright you lot! The Dark Master demands we search this swamp for any fierce creatures we can 'recruit' into our army," a rather brutish looking ape said to a bunch of smaller apes.

The group looked around themselves in confusion. In honesty, they had no idea why their master would want them to look for creatures in a swamp. All that was here were those living plants and smaller spiders. Hardly 'army for a new world order' material. Regardless, none of them really had the courage to question the Dark Master's authority.

As they started to head towards the swamp, though, they had heard a whistling sound. Hearing it come from above, they looked up as their eyes went wide and their mouths dropped. They didn't even have a second to fully process it as a rain of sharp ice shards flooded down upon them.

* * *

"Spyro! Spyro, bro! Where are you?" Sparx called. He was currently floating above the tree line, as past experiences had taught him that flying around the swamp ground usually resulted in him almost becoming a snack for some of the plant life there.

Putting his hand above his eyes to block out the sun, he saw a purple splotch flying his way. "Hey! Spyro! What the heck is going oooo—_ooooooooooooon!_"

Sparx barely had time to dodge out of the way as Spyro darted past him, the force of the wind in his wake tossing the unfortunate dragonfly around. Eyes spinning as he grabbed his head to steady himself, Sparx saw Spyro heading back to their parents' house.

"Spyro! Wait up!"

Sparx groaned, trying in vain to keep up with his current speedster of a brother.

* * *

Nina and Flash looked at the note in front of them in disbelief. Was this one of Spyro and Sparx's games? No matter how many times they reread it, it just didn't make sense.

"Dear Mom and Dad:

Sparx and I are off to save the world. Be back in a few years.

Love, Spyro."

* * *

Ignitus sighed to himself. Things were truly hopeless. The other Guardians had been kidnapped, and the Dragon Temple had been overrun by apes. Truly, despite their struggles, the Dar—

"Spyro! For Pete's sake man, _wait up!_"

Ignitus raised his head at the shouting as, not a second later, the sight he had never thought he would see appeared in front of him.

"You—"

"Yeah! Legendary purple dragon, here to turn the tides of war! Name's Spyro! What's that? The Dragon Temple has been taken over by apes? _Don't worry I got it be right back!_"

Ignitus blinked as the purple dragon of legend, his mouth somehow wagging faster than even Volteer's, darted off towards the temple. Not a second later, a golden dragonfly came floating by, panting heavily.

"Wings...feel...like..._fire..._"

Ignitus stood in wide-eyed silence at the bizarre scene that had just taken place. Feeling like the stress of everything might have gotten to him, he shook his head. Had it not been for the sound of explosions and apes yelling in terror, Ignitus would have thought he'd imagined the whole thing.

Maybe it was because he wanted to make sure he wasn't crazy, but Ignitus made his way to the temple. Surprisingly, the main gate that had been blocked off by the apes was now wide open. Cautiously walking in, he saw multiple spirit gems littered all around the place. All the doors had been opened, and the statue of Malefor—which they still hadn't gotten around to removing, despite the millennia of Malefor being their sworn enemy—had already descended into the floor of the dojo.

Standing in the middle, Spyro sat impatiently tapping his claw. Sparx was atop the dragon's head, desperately trying to catch his breath. Ignitus blinked a few times.

"Yes, this is really happening. I got rid of all the apes! By the way, look what I can do!"

Before Ignitus could even speak, Spyro had activated the training dummies and was currently throwing around fireballs and streams of fire left and right, Sparx holding on for dear life. Ignitus' mouth hung open as Spyro unleashed his fire fiery, taking care of the last few dummies as he floated down to the ground.

"Pretty cool, huh? By the way, the other guardians have been captured! I'm off to Dante's Freezer to rescue Volteer now! _Be right back!_"

Once again, before Ignitus could say anything, Spyro had already darted off towards the frozen wasteland through the balcony. Ignitus paused before he slapped himself, if only to make sure he was still sane.

As Spyro flew through the air at breakneck speeds, Sparx holding on as best he could, he had a determined look about him. This wasn't going to be easy, even with the added skills he had acquired through the loops, but for just this one loop...he would hopefully get to save Cynder from her nightmare a few days earlier than normal.

* * *

**Classic Loop 1.5:**

Sparx tried his best not to laugh. Not all loops had followed Spyro's adventures to a T, but this so far had been the most entertaining one. He was currently in the Magic Crafter's world, flying from floating island to floating island. He was pale blue at the moment, a far cry from his usual golden color he had become used to maintaining throughout the loops thanks to Spyro's ever increasing skills... Of course, that meant nothing if Spyro wasn't actually his partner for the loop.

"Oof!"

Sparx glanced over at his current 'best friend' in this loop. The pink dragoness had toppled over in her glide and was currently picking herself up with a stretch. Ember sighed. "Why couldn't the dragons get turned to stone in a place with less bottomless pits?"

Sparx chuckled. When he had woken up to see Ember by his side instead of Spyro, he'd nearly busted up laughing. All in all, though, he had to give the dragoness _some_ credit. He hadn't even expected her to make it out of the Artisan Realm, yet somehow she had managed to make her way through it all while saving every dragon up to that point.

Though trying to watch her fight Gnasty's tougher minions was a bit painful, Ember was surprisingly clever when it came to figuring out puzzles. She'd even managed to figure out that insane super charge jump in Tree Tops on her first go, a feat Spyro was still struggling to remember despite all the loops he'd been through, and Flame had rage-quit after his fifth attempt during the loop in which Sparx had ended up with him. Though, the daring leaps she'd had to make to get through had shaken her up greatly for a good while after.

Sparx floated by with a bemused expression as Ember flamed one of the fools to lower a platform. "Sorry, but I really need to get up to one of the higher areas!"

_"Ember, I don't think you need to apologize to them. Didn't that one dragon say they don't feel pain?"_

Ember glanced up at Sparx, a sheepish expression on her face. "I know, but unlike Gnasty's minions, which are basically gems, these guys are still living creatures."

Sparx shook his head. Another thing he had learned about this dragoness throughout this loop was that she didn't like causing harm to non-animated-unanimated objects. Even though he had assured her that the small creatures around the Realms were just basically magic butterflies used to restore his health, she didn't like the idea of hurting them, even if it meant it would put herself at risk.

Sparx glanced around the Realm. Outside of Ember, there were still no signs of anything _too _out of the ordinary this loop. Part of him was actually rather depressed by this. Though watching Ember flounder about was amusing, he had hoped that something new would come from it.

He heard Ember sigh. Nothing too new. Despite actually being rather excited when the adventure had started, she'd quickly realized just how dangerous it could be. At least she didn't constantly complain about it, though, which was more than he could say about Flame.

"Where's Spyro when you need him?"

Sparx paused when he heard Ember mutter those words. He glanced over with a raised eyebrow. Ember was still looking down at the ground with an exhausted look on her face, unaware of her dragonfly companion looking at her. Sparx quickly looked away when she lifted her head and started to head towards a nearby portal.

Had she really just mentioned Spyro? How was that possible? She shouldn't know who Spyro was in this loop. Spyro was nowhere to be seen in the Artisan Realm, which meant they couldn't have both been living there unlike that one loop where Spyro had nearly jumped out of his scales at the realization. There's no possible way she could have known him.

_'Unless...'_

Sparx glanced down at Ember as they jumped through the portal. Could it be possible that Spyro and him weren't the only ones looping? But how? Ember had never shown any sign of knowing she was caught in a time-loop before...

_'I'm going to have to tell Spyro about this next loop... Speaking of which, I wonder where he is in this loop?'_

* * *

Spyro groaned as he laid on 'his' bed. It looked like this was going to be another vacation loop, though it was going to be decidedly less awesome than the time before. He sighed as he looked around 'his' room and cringed slightly.

"Ack!"

Spyro chuckled as he heard a splash of water followed by a clanking sound. Rapid footsteps headed towards 'his' door, and it swung open to reveal a red dragon with a bucket on his head. Flame glared at Spyro as he lift the bucket off him, completely soaked from the prank.

"Not cool, sis!"

'Spyra' laughed. Though torturing Flame was going to be fun, for 'her' this loop couldn't end soon enough.

* * *

**Legends Loop 1.5:**

Spyro looked around the arena of the pirate ship. How many times had he been here now? He'd stopped counting after one hundred and thirty two. Despite this, he still couldn't help but wonder each time how this massive ship could stay afloat in the air even with magic.

Spyro's skills had become rather impressive for his age. Or rather, the age these loops keep sending him back to. Though he had struggled at first in this arena, now he was able to mop the floor with the challengers in little under a few seconds. In honesty, if he wanted to, he could easily bust out of his cell now with the earth element and tear these ships a new one. However, there was always one thing that kept him from doing just that.

"Just like old times."

Spyro stood firm as he watched Cynder circle him. He wasn't sure if Cynder 'fighting' him was one of the things that allowed her to 'escape' these pirates, but he didn't want to take the chance.

This part had always worried him, though not for the same reason it had originally. He had long since learned the fight was merely a ruse for Cynder to attempt her 'escape plan', which, as Spyro had found out in one loop, basically meant hitting the captain in the face with poison when she got a clear shot at him. Learning from experience that said tactic rarely _ever _ended well for either of them, Spyro had developed several strategies over the loops to make sure Cynder could never get a clear shot at him. As horrible as it sounded, getting caught by the apes actually ended _better _for her than what the captain would end up doing to her—and what he would end up doing to the captain.

The problem, though, was the timing. Despite most things staying pretty much the same during each loop, the apes attacking the ship always seemed to be random. This meant Spyro would often have to keep the ruse up while making sure nothing bad happened to her, which looked like it was about to be the case once again.

Spyro rolled out of the way as Cynder came spinning at him. He could never tell if Cynder honestly thought that such an attack would seem believable to the audience, or if she was just really bad at fake fighting. Spyro had pretty much learned all her moves during this 'fight' by now, so dodging them wasn't the problem.

The problem was making it seem like he was actually trying to fight.

Cynder charged forward and went to slash at Spyro's feet. This seemed to be one of her more preferred tactics for this 'battle', and thus Spyro easily kept one step ahead of her. The audience started to boo, but whether or not it was because they didn't like him or the fact that it appeared like he was in no real danger was beyond him.

Spyro rolled back and jumped onto the side of the wall before he pushed on it and flew to the other side of the arena. Spinning around, he saw Cynder heading his way. Usually, by now, this was when the apes would strike. It almost saddened him a little when he thought about it. Cynder shortly escaping the pirates only to get captured again by the apes. Part of him wanted to follow Cynder to see what that was like for her, but he knew that for each loop he had a 'part to play', so to speak.

Cynder jumped into the air, flipping as she went to bring her tail down on Spyro. Spyro easily side-stepped, causing the crowd to boo. He could really care less about what the crowd thought, though.

Glancing over, he saw Cynder had gotten her tail blade stuck in the wooden arena and was now struggling to free it with an annoyed look on her face. Spyro chuckled. It was rather rare that would happen in one of the loops, but it was always a funny sight when that happened... Though, Spyro had learned the hard way not to try to help her free it.

Spyro watched with an amused expression as Cynder freed her tail and looked at him with a mock angry glare. Or maybe she really was annoyed at Spyro chuckling at her. It was rather hard to tell. All Spyro knew was that, thanks to these loops, the glare that he used to find dreadful was actually starting to become rather cute.

These loops were really starting to desensitize the original strife he had felt going through this for the first time. Though he had dreaded this part originally, now it had more or less devolved into a play fight between him and his future love.

Dodging another fury of slashes with ease, Spyro couldn't hide the out-of-place smile on his face. The apes would be there any second now to tear these ships a new one, which actually depressed him in a way. Part of him wanted to spend a few more seconds with Cynder, even if she was faking a fight with him at the moment.

As Cynder had to pause to catch her breath for a few seconds, Spyro chuckled. Not a second later, a funny thought crossed his mind. Though he tried to keep things as close to how they actually happened the first time, surely _this _wouldn't mess with things _too _much. Besides, he was getting tired of having to wait until he repaired the world each loop for this.

As Cynder glanced up and tried to put on a mock angry expression, she was caught off guard by what happened next.

Spyro jumped forward and pressed his lips against Cynder's, the black dragoness' eyes going wide as a blush appeared on her face. The audience went silent at the sight, unsure of what was going on.

Cynder pulled back, staggering backwards, the blush still on her face. Struggling to steady her thoughts, her mouth moved in an attempt to say something, but no words came out. Predictably, the audience started to boo, though Spyro swore he could have heard at least one sweet sounding 'Aaaaw' amongst the disapproval.

Before Cynder could say anything, the ship shook. Just like Spyro had predicted, the ships were now being attacked by the apes. Though Cynder hesitated for a few seconds, she darted into the opposite gate as it crashed down. The ship's mast fell down soon after to prevent his pursuit as things started randomly bursting into flames. Spyro chuckled.

_'It's amazing how doing something so many times can change one's feelings about it.'_

With that, Spyro darted to the gate he normally escaped through.

* * *

**Classic Loop 1.6**

"Wait, wait, wait... You're telling me Ember actually mentioned me despite being in a loop where she shouldn't know I exist?"

_"I know it sounds weird, Spyro, but I heard what I heard. She specifically mentioned you, I swear!"_

Spyro groaned. That wasn't what he had hoped to ever hear. Out of all the possible people who could end up looping with him, _why _did it have to be his number one fangirl? Spyro shook his head as he glared down at the arena below.

_"Well, look on the bright side. At least we know we're not the only ones!"_

Spyro glared at Sparx, shaking his head at the not-so-reassuring thought. "It still doesn't make sense, Sparx. I've encountered her several times now in these loops, and in almost none of them did she mention that she knows she's looping."

_"Well, maybe unlike us, it's not every time for some people?" _Sparx suggested as he scratched his chin.

"Maybe," Spyro muttered as he jumped off his throne. "For now, though, let's just deal with it when it comes up. I'm not exactly looking forward to the idea of spending eternity trapped in a loop with Ember."

Sparx chuckled at the annoyance in Spyro's voice, but nonetheless decided to humor Spyro. This was the first time a loop like this had ever happened, and Spyro was surprisingly excited by it. Sparx didn't know if he should be worried by that, considering what it was, but he didn't really have time to think about it as the doors to the arena opened.

"Spyro the dragon! In the name of Avalar, your reign of terror ends now!" a high and scratchy voice yelled, the robed figure pointing his scepter at the dragon.

Spyro smirked as he saw Ripto waddle into the arena. In almost every loop, he had played the hero or at least been a decent dragon, so the idea of playing as a villain for a loop was an interesting change of pace. Of course, he made sure not to _really _hurt anyone, but that didn't stop him from playing it for all it was worth.

"Fool! Do you honestly think you stand a chance again me, Dark Master Spyro!? You are even a bigger fool than I had first thought! _AAHahahahahaha!_"

Sparx face-palmed, half from Spyro's overblown performance, half from the title he had chosen for himself.

_"The 'Dark Master'? Seriously?" _Sparx asked, giving Spyro an odd look. _"That has to be the most generic, uncreative title for a big bad to give themselves ever."_

Spyro glared at Sparx. "C'mon! You try thinking of evil-sounding titles on the fly!"

Sparx sighed as Spyro jumped down to the arena below to face this Realm's 'hero'. He was having _way _too much fun being the bad guy...

* * *

**Legends Loop 1.6:**

Spyro looked up at the night sky. So far, this loop had been pretty much standard. He hadn't tried to speed run it like that one loop where he nearly caused himself to die of dehydration, though getting to spend a few extra days with Cynder before the events of the Night of Eternal Darkness had been nice. Sparx was awake for this loop and, despite his attempts to convince him to start messing with people to pass time, Spyro had made sure to keep this loop as close to how things actually went as possible.

He couldn't quite place it, but something about this loop felt different...

It had been about a day or so since he had saved Cynder from Convexity. Again. Despite being two hundred something loops in now, seeing her like that every time depressed him greatly. At least she hopefully wouldn't remember it once whatever was causing this nightmare broke.

Spyro sighed. About now, Cynder should be coming out onto the balcony to ask him what was wrong. Spyro scanned the back of his mind. He could never remember what exactly he had said to her, likely something about Malefor, but over the loops he had managed to come up with a few responses that more or less kept the same meaning.

"Yo, Spyro!"

Spyro turned his head, a bit annoyed to see Sparx there. "What are you doing here, Sparx?"

"Well, hi to you too."

Spyro sighed. "You know what I mean, Sparx. Cynder's going to be coming out here any second now, and I don't want you messing with her." Spyro narrowed his eyes at his brother. "Need I bring up the loop where you got Volteer to—?"

"Oh, c'mon bro! You can't expect me to do the same exact things for every loop I'm awake in!" Sparx said, crossing his arms. "I mean, after one hundred and fifty something loops, things tend to get repetitive. Besides, Volteer was fine once the uncontrollable twitching wore off!"

Spyro shook his head before looking back at Sparx. "Sparx, I get that you're getting tired of this. I am too. Can you at least leave Cynder out of your pranks, though?"

"Fine, fine. That wasn't the reason I came out here, though."

Spyro raised an eyebrow at Sparx's comment. It had sounded so serious in comparison to how Sparx normally sounded, which was enough to make Spyro worry. "What is it, Sparx?"

Sparx diverted his eyes as he looked away. "Well...it's Cynder."

Spyro narrowed his eyes as he felt his blood run cold. "What about Cynder?"

"Well, you know how when we rescue Cyn normally, she's usually mopey for a good few days before she goes off on the quest that turns us all into a living popsicle?"

Spyro's muscles tensed up. Though Sparx hadn't told him what was going on yet, he got the feeling that he wasn't going to like it. "Yeah..."

"Well, lately she's been even more mopey than usual. Normally in the loops I've been through, I've seen her around the temple once or twice," Sparx said before turning back to Spyro. "Well, so far she has yet to leave her room in this loop. No one at the temple has heard a peep out of her."

Spyro paused as he let Sparx's words sink in. Spyro looked at the doorway. Normally, Cynder would have already been there by now. That, combined with what Sparx had said, started to worry him greatly. This odd feeling he had about this loop, it couldn't be...

_'No...'_

"Spyro...?"

_'No-no-no-no-NO!'_

Before Sparx could say anything more, Spyro darted off into the temple. Sparx barely got out of the way in time as he spun from the wind blowing behind him. Eyes spinning in his head as he grabbed his antenna to make it stop, he looked back at the temple. He just barely caught the distraught look on Spyro's face as he darted by.

* * *

_'Please no!' _Spyro thought to himself as he ran through the temple halls, unable to hide the worry on his face. _'Please... Just let this be one of those 'variation' loops! Please just let this be a minor variation! Don't let this be what I think it is... _Please _don't let this be what I think it is!'_

It didn't take long for Spyro to make to the outside of Cynder's room. Panting heavily, he stared at it. Part of him didn't want to open it, worried that if he did, his greatest fear about this whole mess would be realized. However, if what he had been worried about was true, then he knew Cynder was going to need someone now more than ever. Taking a deep breath, Spyro opened the door.

At first, he didn't see anything. It wasn't until he really looked around did he see a black ball huddled up in the corner. Spyro gulped. This wasn't a good sign.

"C-Cynder?"

The black ball stirred for a few seconds before the dragoness glanced at him. Spyro could see the fear in Cynder's eyes, but he wasn't sure what it was about. He hoped it was for something completely unrelated, but at the back of his mind he knew what the real reason was. As much as he wanted to delude himself that this wasn't the case, he knew he needed to ask.

"Cynder... Do you remember?"

At first, Cynder said nothing as she stared at Spyro.

"R-remember what?" Her voice was shaky as she asked.

"Remember all of this. All the stuff we've already done. All of what's happened before."

Cynder raised her head at Spyro's words. In the back of his mind, Spyro cringed as he saw her eyes. In them was something he had hoped he wouldn't see again until all this mess was over. Until he didn't have to worry about it must be like—the torture it must be—and when they could finally be together.

In her eyes was recognition.

"Spyro, what the heck is going on?" she asked as she got up and headed over to him. Her voice was still rather shaky, and she was having a hard time walking as her legs shook.

"Please, _please _tell me we're in a nightmare! Please tell me that this isn't real... Please tell me that I...I didn't..."

Spyro frowned, unable to say anything as Cynder walked up to him with pleading eyes. All he could do was give the dragoness a hug. Cynder almost collapsed in his arms. Spyro's worst fear had been realized.

Cynder had consciously gone through reliving her experiences as the 'Terror of the Skies'.

Cynder said nothing as she held onto Spyro, shaking badly as she closed her eyes. Spyro wrapped his wings around her. The experience had been traumatizing when it happened to her before, so he couldn't begin to imagine what it was like to go through it a second time. Spyro closed his eyes as he rested his head on hers.

He knew now, more than ever, he _needed _to find a way to break these loops...

* * *

**(A/N: A bit of minor mood whiplash at the end there. Sorry if it didn't seem too emotional... I'm not all that great at writing emotional scenes. That's why I mainly do comedy and action. lol**

**Anyways, looks like the Spyro's and Sparx' aren't the only ones in these loops anymore. Wonder how that'll effect things in the "future" so to speak? For now though, it seems both Spyro's have two very different approaches when it comes to these loops...**

**Anyways, it's time for the loop names.**

**Classic Loops:**

**1.4: Spyro used Bubble beam! It's super effective!**

**1.5: Ember the Dragoness.**

**1.6: Ripto the Raptor: Spyro's Rage.**

**Legends Loops:**

**1.4: LAS: Loop Assisted Speedrun.**

**1.5: Loops have that effect on people.**

**1.6: Worst fear realized...)**


	3. Escaping Fate

**(Chapter beta-read by Riverstyxx. Further comments at the end of the chapter.)**

**Classic Loop 1.7**

Spyro was proud of himself. He had no idea how many loops in he was at this point, and even though he had attempted this several times in the past, never once did he actually think he'd pull _this _off.

It had taken several loops hanging out with two of his greatest enemies, getting to know the quickest way to get them to _not _attempt to smash, blast, or kill him on sight, and even then he had to figure out the correct way to word things not to tick either of them off... But in the end, it was _so worth it_.

"So, _how _many loops have you done again?"

Spyro glanced over to Hunter. It hadn't been long before the cheetah had started to occasionally loop with him, a fact that Spyro was rather happy about. It was nice to finally have someone _other _than just Sparx to talk to for a change. Admittedly, he still had to check out if Ember really was looping too, but he wasn't exactly in _too _much of a hurry with that.

"Don't know. Lost count after four hundred."

Had it really been that many times? Felt like it, at least.

"Four hundred!?" Hunter exclaimed, jaw nearly falling off as he stared wide-eyed at Spyro. "What have you been doing all this time!?"

Spyro paused, looking up as he thought.

"Well, the first few times around, I mostly stuck to how things went on my adventures the first time. When that started to get boring, I started to take some 'shortcuts' to make things go by quicker. When that got boring, I started bringing stuff with me through the loops to mess around with some of the more annoying baddies," Spyro said before he glanced at Hunter.

"When _that _started losing its charm, I started to see what it would be like going through each loop with a different element. Eventually got enough of that too, and now...here we are."

Spyro glanced down at the chaos below. Ripto had teleported out of the way as a mighty club slammed into the ground. Gnasty growled as Ripto reappeared in a flash of light.

"You short freak! How dare you call me ugly!"

"How dare you call me short! You _pig-faced moron!_"

Sparx watched in amusement as he held out a bag of popcorn towards Spyro. _"Popcorn?"_

Spyro took the bag and started to munch on some popcorn. The ground shook as fireballs and magic blasts flew everywhere. The whole thing had started through a bet with Sparx over who was the stronger villain. Spyro's bet was on Ripto. He may have been scrawny, but his magic packed a punch.

Passing the popcorn to Hunter, Spyro began to think. So far, for the loops where he actually _was _himself, for the most part he had been following his adventures with a few twists. However, having spent the last few loops trying to get _this _insanity set up, Spyro had learned a few things.

Even if he skipped out on a few of his adventures, the loop would end around the same time he would have beaten the Sorcerer in the 'main timeline', as he called it. There was no real punishment to dying, either, as he would just wake up with Gnasty turning the dragons to stone again... Though, the less said about how he had found _that _out, the better. Having grown bored of repeating his adventures, he began to wonder...

_'What kind of crazy stuff can I pull that I normally couldn't?"_

* * *

**Legends Loop 1.7:**

Cynder didn't know if she was being punished for her sins, but it certainly _felt _like it.

Five times now.

Five times, not counting when she had originally been through this nightmare. Five times she'd had to relive her actions as the Terror of the Skies.

The worst part was that she could do nothing about it, either. At least for the loops so far she had been conscious for, at the end she had managed to resist Malefor's control when he attempted to turn her evil again... But from now up until when Spyro rescued her from Convexity, she had no choice but to watch her body commit these terrible acts over and over again.

It was maddening. She hadn't even been able to speak for all the loops she had been conscious for so far. Even with Spyro's reassurance, it did little to help.

The first time it had happened, she refused to leave the temple. Even when Malefor had called for her to head for the Well of Souls, she'd refused to leave. Spyro had been by her side the entire time as the guardians prepared for Malefor's eventual escape. It had been interesting to see what the three years had been like when they weren't frozen for a change, with Spyro being a driving force in the war against him. Surprisingly, though, from what Spyro had said, in the end things didn't change much.

The second time, she was still badly shaken from it. Once again resisting Malefor's call, this time around she had at least managed to pull herself together enough to assist Spyro on the battlefield, but as always the end was the same. Failing to stop the Destroyer, the ancestors dragging Malefor off to whatever hell-hole he deserved, and Spyro pulling the world back together. From what he had said, he'd actually become quite good at it.

In the third loop, though, Cynder had learned of just how many times Spyro had 'looped' compared to her. From what he'd said at the time, he was on his three hundred and fifty-something loop. The thought made Cynder's blood run cold. She knew this curse was obviously because of her...because of what she'd done.

Why on earth did Spyro have to suffer because of her? It wasn't fair. He had done nothing wrong.

From the fourth loop onward, Spyro and her had come to an agreement that she wasn't so sure of at first. Even when she was aware of what was going on, she would still 'go through the motions' of the events leading up to the Night of Eternal Darkness. Though it sounded odd, they had both agreed spending three years as a popsicle was better than spending three years fighting pointless battles. Plus, it helped that Spyro had already done it so many times now that he could avoid getting thrown into the Convexity beam, which would forcefully turn him into his dark form.

Cynder glanced down. A chain was placed around her neck and she was being suspended over the focal point for the Convexity beam that had turned her into the Terror of the Skies. Looking up with a disdainful glare, she saw Gaul beginning to initiate the ritual.

"Soon, my subjects! Soon, great power will be ours!"

Cynder huffed. If only this idiot knew...

This was how every loop where she was 'awake' started for her. Moments before she became _that _and had to relive her sins over again. The first time, she had freaked out as much, if not greater than when it had 'actually' happened to her. The second and third, she had struggled to escape, but to no avail.

However, in the last loop she had been awake for, she had learned a rather interesting fact from Spyro.

Gaul smirked, turning to his subjects.

"Now, my subjects! The new era begins no—!"

Though Gaul's voice usually carried confidence to it at this part, his voice fell flat as he saw the sight that was in front of him. Or rather, the sight that _wasn't_in front of him. Where Cynder was normally supposed to be, all that was there were a pair of chains hanging limp.

Gaul paused, looking around as his eyes narrowed. Where the heck had that little brat—?

Gaul gasped as a sharp object pierced through his chest, right through his heart. As it pulled out and caused him to cough up blood, the mighty ape king fell to the ground.

Cynder shook the blood off her tail. At least she didn't have to worry about going through that horrid process of having the metal blade casted onto her tail. Despite still being in extreme danger, she couldn't help but smirk at the act of vengeance.

Just like Spyro had said. Even though she had yet to be touched by the darkness in this loop, she still had her elements from the previous loops. Namely, her shadow element.

Glancing back down, she saw the apes looking up in shock. She narrowed her eyes before bolting towards the door. She could hear them scream in rage as she ran down the corridor, but she didn't care.

Even if this attempt to escape fell flat on its face, and even if she ended up dying because of it...at least for this loop, she would _not _spend it being Malefor's pawn.

* * *

**Classic loop 1.8:**

Spyro chuckled to himself. So far this loop had been pretty standard. Outside of a few _minor _changes to speed up his first few adventures—and some minor messing with his friend's heads for his own amusement—he had followed his adventures to a T to this point. Sparx buzzed by his head, giving the dragon a pleading look.

_"C'mon, Spyro! Can you _please _tell me what you have planned for this loop? Because, so far, it's been pretty standard."_

Spyro smirked. He _still _had no idea what he had been thinking when he came up with this idea. Turning to Sparx, he gave him a sly look. "Like I said, Sparx... Either this is going to be hilarious, or it'll make this loop a living nightmare for me."

_"You've been saying that this entire loop! Please, give me something a bit more to go on!"_

Spyro looked ahead of him. He was just beginning his adventure where he took down Red, and coming into sight was _that _dark gem. Spyro felt a bit of anxiety at the sight. He was starting to have second thoughts. He had learned all too quickly that trying to _'forcefully' _reset a loop when one of his pranks backfired on him was a very, _very _bad idea.

Spyro shuddered, memories of that tall, no-faced freak in the suit forever burned into his brain. Despite going several loops without seeing it again, he _still _felt like it was watching him...

Spyro shook his head. Regardless of how he felt now, he was already here. He had made a commitment early on in the loop to not back down on this part. Spyro sighed. He _really _hoped this wouldn't backfire on him.

"Spyro!"

As if on cue, Ember was heading his way. In order for this to work, Spyro had to listen to Ember go on about her not-so-secret crush on him. It was a bit annoying, but from it Spyro had managed to figure out that, so far, having said what she usually said word-for-word at this point, he could tell Ember wasn't awake for this loop.

He still believed Sparx had just been messing with him when he'd said Ember was looping too, having yet to see a loop where she was aware they were in a time warp. Sparx still swore that she was, though, and to his credit, Spyro rarely ever followed the parts where he encountered Ember on his adventures.

Tuning back into reality, he saw the sly look on her face. He knew what was coming next. Spyro braced himself. In order for this to work, he needed to keep a straight face and _not _gag. Good thing he'd had all the time in the world to practice it.

"...I know you really like me."

Spyro smirked. _'Here goes nothing...'_

"Was it really that obvious?"

Sparx nearly fell out of the air when he heard Spyro utter those words. Ember's eyes went wide in shock as she placed her paw in front of her mouth. "R-really...!?"

It took every bit of willpower Spyro had to keep a straight face. He honestly wasn't sure how he was doing it, but _somehow _he hadn't choked on his words yet.

"Oh, yes! Ember, enough of this game! I've loved you ever since I first set eyes on your radiant pink scales!" Spyro proclaimed in the hammiest fashion he could muster before running and grabbing the dragoness in a great big hug.

Sparx's mouth nearly fell to the ground as his eyes went wide. Had these loops finally caused Spyro to lose it?

Ember seemed rather confused by Spyro's sudden affection. She had always dreamed of this, but never thought it would actually happen. She went to speak, but Spyro cut her off. "Oh, Ember my love! Marry me! We'll have the happiest life together!"

"M-marry!? B-b-but we're still kids!"

"It doesn't matter! Our love can overcome that!" Spyro said, somehow becoming even hammier as he said these words. He honestly had no idea _how the heck _he was keeping a straight face at this point, but he was too far in to back down now.

Ember let out a slight 'eek' as Spyro hugged her tighter. She gulped, giving a sheepish grin at the overly big smile on Spyro's face. "U-uh, maybe we can start out a bit slower...?"

"But, Ember, my dear! My love burns for you with the passion of a thousand burning suns!" Spyro said, his eyes wide as he gazed at Ember.

Ember looked at Spyro's somehow overly wide eyes, fear flickering across her face at the uncanny feeling it was giving her. She gulped, glancing away as she cleared her throat. "H-huh? Oh, yes! I think I hear my mom calling! She wanted me to be back soon!"

"But _Embeeeeeeeeeeee—!_"

"So-sorry, Spyro! But my mom really needs me! I need to help iron the plants _talk to you later bye!_"

Spyro watched as Ember struggled out of his grasp and took off like a rocket. Spyro took a few seconds to make sure Ember was far out of earshot before he started to chuckle as the creepily happy face he wore finally started to give way.

Finally, he busted up laughing as he fell back, rolling on the ground. As he glanced up at Sparx, the completely dumbfounded look on his face caused Spyro to laugh even harder as tears came to his eyes, pointing at Sparx as he fell onto his stomach.

Finally catching onto Spyro's trick, Sparx shook his head before he shot Spyro a glare.

_"Uh, sorry, but... Exactly _whose _head are you trying to mess with here?"_

Spyro wiped away tears from his eyes as he tried to subdue his laughter, glancing at Sparx with a smirk. "Sorry, Sparx. You should have seen the look on your face, though!"

Sparx sighed, glancing down before he looked back up at Spyro. _"So, exactly what possessed you to do that?"_

Spyro rolled over with a bemused expression, resting on his back while he still had fits of chuckling. "Well, you know how Ember's always bugging me to get me to like her? Well, for this loop, I decided to grant her wish and then some."

Spyro laughed before he rolled over and looked at Sparx again. "Judging from her reaction, I get the feeling I'm not going to have to worry about her for the rest of this loop."

Sparx's face went flat as Spyro continued to chuckle to himself. Clearly Spyro had no understanding of the meaning of 'double standards.'

* * *

**Legends 1.8:**

Once again, he was back at the swamp. Spyro groaned as he laid on the ground, looking up at the stars. By this point, he wasn't even trying to _guess _how many loops he'd been through. If it wasn't for the fact that repetition and getting to practice his abilities in the meantime made doing this over and over again much easier as time went on, he probably would have lost it by now.

Spyro gazed at the stars. He wasn't supposed to be out here at this time of night, and Flash and Nina would likely give him an earful for it, but he didn't really care. He had fought Malefor countless times at this point. He was pretty confident he could easily handle whatever the swamp could throw at him.

Spyro had pretty much tried everything he could think of to try to break these loops. Proving to the Guardians that he had done this countless times now by predicting everything that would happen with shocking accuracy, he felt disheartened that, even when he had told them early on, even in the years before Malefor tried to destroy the world, they could come up with no answers or any way out of this.

Then he had tried the Chronicler. Even when he had forced a way open to the White Isle—a trick he had picked up in his many loops—despite being what was basically a 'Time Dragon', even the Chronicler had no answers for what was going on, either. Spyro closed his eyes, letting out a frustrated sigh.

Then... That was when he had started to become desperate. In one of the loops, he had even asked Malefor himself if he knew what was going on, if he was the one who had cursed him to repeat these events forever. Predictably, though, he wasn't exactly that helpful.

_'Well, Spyro... I _may _be able to break what you're going through... If you accept your destiny as a purple dragon and destroy the planet."_

Those words still rung out in his mind despite it being several loops back. Like there was any chance he would ever accept _that _offer. Even if Malefor really could break this cycle they were trapped in, being stuck in a never-ending war was still better than whatever personal hell Malefor would turn their world into.

Spyro gazed back up to the stars. It looked like he was going to have to figure out how to fix this on his own.

_'If only Cynder hadn't got caught up in this too...'_

That was what terrified him the most, really. Cynder being tortured by having to live through that nightmare, and not being able to do a damn thing to stop it. Spyro rolled onto his side as he closed his eyes. He knew he needed to figure out how to break this endless nightmare before her psyche was permanently shattered, but it only served to frustrate him even more as he had no idea where to even begin.

Cynder... The thought of his loved one caused him extreme worry. He had noticed a new, alarming trend with these loops where Cynder seemed to be completely absent from them. Without her being the Dark Master's commander against her will, new creatures ended up taking her place to keep the loop stable. For the most part, it was usually Gaul himself that ended up becoming 'The King of Terror', as he was referred to in those loops. Needless to say, unlike Cynder, Spyro didn't even bother trying to save him from Convexity when he got to that point.

Why this kept happening, though, really worried him. He hoped they were nothing more than 'variation' loops and _not _the 'extreme' measures he was fearing Cynder would do to escape being the Terror of the Skies each time she woke up in these loops. He had tried asking her about it in one fairly standard loop where she was awake, but predictably she still said nothing like most loops she was awake for.

However, one question she had asked still had Spyro rather confused. For whatever reason, Cynder wanted to see the place he grew up at before he was dragged into the war. Though he had no idea why, he was more than happy to show her if it meant getting her mind off things for even a little bit. Thankfully, Flash and Nina never really did keep up with the outside world all that much. Even with the massive war going on, they had no idea of the acts Cynder had been forced to perform against her will.

Spyro rolled onto his back again to gaze at the stars. At least the loops were generous enough to give him about a year before the apes would invade his swamp and he'd have to do his quest once again.

It was then Spyro heard a rustling in the nearby bushes. He sighed. Probably another Frogweed. They were easy enough to deal with, but those annoying pests were all over the damn place in the swamp. Spyro sighed, getting to his feet as he got ready to deal with this thing so he could go back to resting. What he saw step out of the bushes, though, nearly caused him to fall backwards in shock.

Her body was badly brushed. She had several cuts and gashes along her form. On her tail was some dried blood-stains, and she was panting from exhaustion. Nonetheless, those same emerald eyes had a spark to them as she looked at him, a smile on her face as a tear started to well up in her eye. Spyro was almost speechless, but managed to say one word.

"C-Cyn—!"

Spyro was stopped mid-word as Cynder ran forward, throwing her forelegs around him in a hug. She had done it. After the countless times she had tried, the countless apes she'd had to fight, having to relive being the Terror of the Skies for yet one last loop, and the countless times she had been so close to escape, only to have it yanked away at the last second...she had finally done it.

Cynder glanced up at Spyro, who was still shocked to see her in front of him. She smiled, resting her head on his chest. Spyro wasn't sure what to say. He wasn't sure if the loops had taken pity on him for a change and decided to offer this variation as a way to help him get through this. Regardless, Spyro gave a soft smile as he hugged her back.

He wasn't sure how this had happened, but at least for this loop, they would face whatever was thrown at them from the very beginning...together.

* * *

**Classic Loop 1.9:**

Spyro smirked as he ran through the temple that would lead him to his encounter with Ripto. Sparx was glancing back wide-eyed as he gritted his teeth in terror. He had no idea what Spyro was thinking, or even _how _he had managed to pull this off, but all he knew was he was now running for his life.

Spyro laughed. When he had told Hunter of his plan for this loop, though he'd thought it'd be hilarious, the cheetah had decided to sit back from the sidelines to watch. Shame. This run was actually pretty exciting.

As Spyro ran through the dark void and appeared in the arena where he would end up fighting Ripto—he _still _had no idea how that worked—he smirked.

"So, dragon! This is—_hey!_"

Ripto growled as Spyro ran past him without even acknowledging his existence. Watching as the dragon pulled out some sort of mini-UFO from some kind of hammerspace, Ripto growled as Spyro jumped on it and flew off into the air.

"Hey! No fair!"

Ripto watched as Spyro circled around the arena in the aircraft. Though rather annoyed, Ripto would not let him know that. "Oh, I get it! You can't take me on by yourself, so you have to cheat! Well, dragon, _two _can play...at...this...?"

Ripto paused as he felt the ground starting to shake. Raising an eyebrow, he looked back. His mouth promptly dropped as his eyes went wide.

Not a second later, him and his mechanical replica of Gulp were trampled under a massive wave of angry sheep.

* * *

**Legends loop 1.9:**

Spyro watched from the sidelines as the Stone Sentinel brought its fist down in a mighty slam. Spyro had fought this guy many times in the loops he had been in so far, and despite being revered as a god, he was actually one of the easier enemies for Spyro to fight now. Of course, that meant nothing if he wasn't the actual one fighting it.

Cynder flew in the air as she circled around the stone creature. Opening her maw, she let out a high-pitched shriek that caused the Stone Sentinel to freeze for a few seconds.

It had been quite a few loops since Cynder had managed to figure out a way to escape her 'coronation' as the Terror of the Skies. It wasn't _always _perfect, granted. There were a few loops where the apes had managed to pull a fast one on her before she could escape, but she was slowly starting to see the patterns in their attempts to stop her. At the very least, when she finally got to Spyro, she wasn't anywhere near as beat up as she had been on the first loop she had managed to pull it off.

Currently, they were on the 'King of Terror' loop, as they referred to it. Without Cynder, provided she didn't take out any 'percussive therapy' on him, Gaul would usually end up filling her role to keep the loop stable. Maybe it was because Malefor was angry at him letting her escape. He couldn't really be too sure, though.

From then on, for the loops she was awake for, Cynder usually accompanied Spyro on his adventures. The year they'd had before they'd had to leave the swamp had been a really nice addition, too.

Flash and Nina were usually rather accepting of the new dragoness, though they had some questions about where exactly she came from. It took them a couple of loops to come up with a reasonable explanation that didn't alert them of the war going on. They also couldn't be _too _affectionate with each other, less they risk getting 'the talk' from Spyro's parents—a fact Sparx was _never _going to let them live down, much to their annoyance. _Why _did he have to be awake for that loop?—but compared to how things usually went in these loops...it was the closest thing to a break they could get.

Spyro wished he had figured something out to save her sooner, as reliving being the Terror of the Skies six times had obviously taken its toll on her. Even after a few loops like thus, she was only slowly starting to speak again. It wasn't much, just a few short sentences before she would end the conversation...but at least it was a start.

Besides, she had recently surprised him when she'd asked if she could fight this thing for a change. For the most part, she usually just hung back to see what it was like for 'his side of the story', only stepping in when she felt like he was in serious danger. Which, given how many times he'd done all this, wasn't very often. Not that he minded much. Just having her by his side and _not _being forced to watch her commit those acts as the Terror of the Skies against her will was enough for him.

Spyro watched as Cynder disappeared into her shadow, the Sentinel punching the ground where she once was. Confused, the giant stone golem looked around. Not a second later, Cynder jumped out of his shadow and flew up, summoning a mighty gust of wind that sent the golem toppling and breaking into several pieces.

Spyro walked up to her as she landed back on the ground. "Not bad."

Cynder smiled, causing Spyro to smile in return. About now, Kane should be coming to begrudgingly congratulate them. Considering she did most of the work this time around, it was going to be interesting to see how Cynder would react to the offer of being worshipped as a hero. Spyro had always rejected the offer himself, despite the many loops, as he didn't like the idea of being worshipped in general.

Spyro paused as he glanced at the entrance to the arena. He raised an eyebrow, tilting his head. Noticing that Cynder was looking at him, Spyro shook his head.

"That's odd... Kane should be here by now," Spyro muttered. Looking around, it was only then he realized a certain other member of their time-looping escapades was missing from their group. Frowning, he narrowed his eyes. "Where's Sparx...?"

* * *

Spyro looked on with his mouth agape and eyes wide in either shock or horror. Cynder's eyes were wide as well, but other than that she managed to keep her composure a bit better than Spyro.

They were currently in the Atlawa's village. Normally, that would have been no cause for alarm. However, as the Atlawa's bowed up and down before a recently created throne in the middle of the village, it took Spyro several seconds to believe what his eyes were seeing.

_"All hail Sparx! All hail Sparx! All hail Sparx!"_

Sparx rested his hands behind his head. It had taken him several hundred loops, a lot of careful and clever wordplay, making sure he could do this while his brother and Cynder were too busy to stop him, and a _whole _mess of wires, but in the end it was worth it.

It was _good _to be the deity.

* * *

**(A/N: I noticed there tends to be a bit of mood whiplash between the classic and legends loops, what with the legends characters approaching this rather realistically and having to find way around the darker parts of the series, while the classic characters are all 'let's mess with everyone we know!'. Don't worry though, things in the legends part should get a bit less serious once they finally figure out what's going on.**

**Also, Cynder being transformed a year before the plot to aNB. Honestly, that was just a general guess based off the cut scenes that showed her being relatively close to her age in the series proper when it happened. I forget what game it was in exactly, I want to say tEN when the Chronicler is showing Spyro those books that record a dragons life since birth, but I do know there was a scene in the series at some point that showed Gaul transforming Cynder, and she appeared to be close to her actual age aNB and tEN.**

**Also, if you could tell, I'm trying to keep these in a 'three legends loops, three classic loops' format. There will be exceptions for when I feel like one loop has gone on for way too long, but generally this is how things are going to go. Anyways, loop titles:**

**Classic Loops:**

**1.7: Title match! Gnasty VS Ripto!**

**1.8: ****_Totally _****not reverse psychology. Nope. Not that at all.**

**1.9: Me thinks Spyro's been playing too much LoZ.**

**Legends Loops:**

**1.7: A dish best served cold.**

**1.8: "Together"**

**1.9: All hail Sparx! God of Snark!)**


	4. Welcome to the Multiverse

**("The character of Jenny Everywhere is available for use by anyone, with only one condition. This paragraph must be included in any publication involving Jenny Everywhere, in order that others may use this property as they wish. All rights reversed." - Steven Wintle, Jenny Everywhere's creator.**

**Chapter beta-read by Riverstyxx.)**

* * *

**Legends Loop 2.0:**

Another day, another loop.

Once again he was in the swamp. As had become routine whenever she was awake, Cynder would escape just before she was turned into the Terror of the Skies and make a beeline for their home. She was getting quite good at it at this point. The last few loops, she'd barely had any scratches on her.

In a sense, though Spyro had originally hoped she wouldn't get dragged into this, he was kind of happy she was there with him. These loops had given her a second chance. A chance to live without people seeing her as nothing but the Terror of the Skies. Even though she'd had to relive that horrible experience several times, in the process she had figured out a way to escape her original fate.

"So, Spyro... Today's when the apes invade the swamp, right?"

Spyro glanced over to Cynder, who was walking by his side. Through the past few loops, Cynder had slowly started to become a bit more talkative again. It still wasn't much, but at least she was speaking up without being spoken to first. Though, understandably, she still didn't want to talk about her first few loops.

"Yep. Provided some sort of variation in the loop doesn't take place," Spyro said, looking ahead.

Sparx rested between Spyro's horns, having learned from experience that this was usually the safest place, and the one least likely to get him caught by the apes. "Still say we should mess with them a bit before you take care of them. Considering you can take these guys down now with almost zero effort, I don't see what the big deal is..."

"Sparx, our parents are in danger as long as they're here. We can't afford to take any risk."

Sparx pouted, crossing his arms. Despite being who _knows _how many loops in, outside of having his girlfriend with him from the start, Spyro didn't really approve of almost _any _alterations. The 'King of Darkness' loop was often the loop he preferred the most, since it was the one that was the closest to the main timeline without putting Cynder through all the strife she had originally experienced. It wouldn't have bugged Sparx as much if it wasn't for Spyro's reasoning behind it, though.

_'"What if we cause some major alteration for the worse, and the loop decides to break?"' _Sparx thought in a mocking voice. _'News flash, bro. If it hasn't broken yet, I doubt it's going to break any time soon.'_

Regardless, Sparx knew there was almost no reasoning with Spyro on the subject, having tried _many _times only to be met with the same response. He sighed as he laid back on his brother's head. _'Spyro, you _really _need to stop being such a stick in the mud...'_

It wasn't long before they made it to the grove where they would encounter the apes. Spyro stretched a bit. Based on past experiences, _especially _with Cynder at his side, this wasn't going to take long at all. As they approached the grove, though, he raised his head.

He could hear the apes screeching already, and the sounds of a struggle going on. From the sound of things, though, it sounded like they were on the losing side of whatever was going on. Both dragons picked up the pace as curiosity consumed them. As they ran down the path where they'd normally encounter the apes, they were met with an odd sight.

There stood an odd bipedal creature wielding a staff. She had a pair of goggles atop her head and short dark hair. She was wearing a scarf around her neck, a green tank top with blue jeans, and a pair of white and blue shoes, which surprisingly weren't all that muddy despite the swampy ground.

Spyro and Cynder looked on in confusion. They had never seen a creature like this before, but whoever she was, she was easily keeping step with the apes. It looked as though they hadn't even managed to land a single blow on her yet.

The being smirked as an ape charged at her, jumping in the air and landing on his head, kicking him into the mud as she collided with a group of them.

Cynder glanced at Spyro, moderately concerned. "We should help her."

Spyro looked at Cynder. He knew she was right, but as he glanced back at the being in the middle of the battle, she didn't look like she was in any danger. In fact, it almost looked like she had a playful smile on her face as the apes got closer.

The being smirked, raising her staff above her head. It appeared to be made of metal, the main pole being silver with a gold trim at each end. She stomped her foot on the ground and a gold incantation circle appeared under her.

"You know what to do, Traveller!"

As if on cue, three slots opened up along the trim of the top end of her staff, and three metal claws shot out to form a perfect circle.

"DETECTING TARGETS... HOSTILE ENTENTIES DETECTED. CHARGING."

The dragons and dragonfly were surprised by the sudden voice. Spyro had heard of rare artifacts that were capable of speech, but the voice that had just spoken sounded so cold and artificial. What exactly _was _this thing?

A glowing orb started to appear between the claws as sparks started to flare around. Sparx floated off Spyro's head and in front of the two dragons, nervously glancing back. "Uh, guys? I'm not sure about you two, but I get the feeling we should hide behind something... Like, _now!_"

Snapping back to reality, Spyro and Cynder quickly realized Sparx might have been onto something. Quickly jumping behind the nearby trees, they had just barely made it in time as the figure smirked.

"Shockwave!"

"DISPENSING PRODUCT!"

As the staff spoke, a magic wave shot out around the figure and slammed into the apes. They tumbled over themselves and dispersed into spirit gems. Spyro and Cynder braced themselves, Spyro having to hold onto Sparx as the wave hit them. Even behind cover, the wave of magic was surprisingly more powerful than they had expected, though they had endured worse on their countless loops.

"Not bad, Traveller," the figure said as the claws atop the staff retracted. Looking around, she wiped the sweat off her forehead as she eyed the spirit gems left behind. "So, creatures explode into crystals in this world when you beat them. Freaky."

Spyro and Cynder poked their heads out from behind the trees. Cynder glanced over to Spyro. "Have you seen this thing before in any of the loops?"

"Not that I can remember. You?"

"Why would I be asking you if I knew?"

The figure raised her eyebrows, having managed to catch Spyro and Cynder's whispers on the wind. Turning around, she managed to catch a glimpse of purple as the two dragons ducked behind the trees again. The figure paused before she smiled. "Yo! You that purple dragon I heard about?"

Spyro and Cynder looked at each other, unsure if they should respond. The figure clearly wasn't with the apes, having fought them a few seconds ago, but they weren't sure exactly _what _she was. In the few variation loops they had encountered, they had never seen a creature like this before, one that could create magic runes like that instantaneously.

The creature sighed, narrowing her eyes as she placed her hand on her head.

"I ain't gonna' hurt ya'. I was hired by some dragon named Ignitus to find 'the purple dragon of legend' in this swamp," she said before she glanced around at her surroundings. "Must say, though, rather odd place for what's basically the dragon version of the Avatar to end up in."

Spyro raised an eyebrow at hearing his mentor's name. He glanced over to Cynder, who seemed just as confused as him. Who was this thing? And what the heck was an 'Avatar'? Finally, with a nod, Spyro poked out from behind the tree, giving the figure a stern glance. "Who are you?"

The figure seemed a bit bothered by Spyro's hostile tone, but regardless managed to keep a straight face. Smiling, she placed her staff behind her head and rested both arms over it.

"Name's Jenny. Jenny Everywhere," she said, a smile on her face as she tilted her head. "And let me guess...you're this world's Anchor, right?"

Spyro raised an eyebrow as he kept a steady eye on this 'Jenny'. "Anchor...?"

"Yeah, Anchor. The one who's always conscious for the loops."

Spyro reeled back when he heard Jenny mention the loops. It shouldn't have surprised him, considering Sparx and Cynder were occasionally awake for the loops, but how did she know he was awake every time? He looked at Cynder and Sparx, both of whom exchanged confused glances. There were so many questions that had been risen because of this loop, and he wanted answers... Starting with the most obvious question.

"W-what's going on? What _are _you?"

Jenny raised an eyebrow. "What's the matter? This world doesn't normally have humans in it?"

Judging from the blank expression on his face, she figured the answer was 'no.' She had suspected as much, considering the odd look that Ignitus dragon had given her.

"I take it this is your first fused loop, then. Well, then, let me be the first to welcome you all to the Multiverse!"

* * *

Spyro, Cynder, and Sparx looked on wide-eyed at the odd device in front of them. It was a small metal disk-like thing that Jenny had thrown down on the ground. It produced a hologram of what appeared to be a tree.

"So, this...Yggdrasil thing. It's what runs 'the Multiverse'?" Spyro asked, still having a hard time grasping the concept of alternate universes.

"More or less," Jenny said, sitting on a log. "Basically, each branch on the tree represents a different universe, with the trunk being the 'hub' universe. The branches could basically be considered different directions the hub universe could have taken."

Jenny looked on with an amused expression as Spyro and Cynder gave each other confused looks. She could have said it was basically a giant super computer, but judging from the aesthetics of this universe, the chances of computers existing here were probably extremely slim.

"And something happened to Yggdrasil, and that's why people keep getting a very bad case of déjà vu?" Sparx asked, scratching his head as he tried to wrap his brain around it.

"Yep. From what the admins said—they're the Gods who make sure everything is running smoothly with the Multiverse—whatever caused it was _quite _the doozy. They're _still _not sure what caused the mess up," Jenny said before she crossed her arms and bit her lip.

"Personally, though, if there's something out there that's so powerful that it can mess up the Multiverse so badly that the Gods have to put all the branches into time-loops to keep it stable while they make repairs, I'd rather not know about it myself."

"Uh, yeah. I'm with goggles on that one," Sparx stated, feeling a chill down his spine at the thought.

Spyro just looked on with a blank expression. This was a lot to take in, but so far it was the best lead they'd had on what was going on so far. He honestly wasn't sure what to think. At least if it had been a curse, they had the chance to break it and live relatively normal lives, but if what Jenny was saying was true, and the Gods themselves were having a hard time fixing things...

Spyro shook his head, pushing the thought of being powerless to the back of his mind. "Anyway, these 'Anchors'..."

"They're what's needed to keep the loops going," Jenny explained, cutting Spyro off. "If it weren't for them, who knows what would happen to their universe."

"And how did you know I was my world's 'Anchor'?"

Jenny tilted her head, a slight smirk on her face. "Oh, I dunno. Anchor needed to stabilize their universe, legendary dragon Avatar... Let's just say I put two and two together," she said in a slightly snarky tone. "Though, granted, nether Aang nor Korra are the anchors of their world, so..."

From what Jenny had explained, 'Avatars' were basically the human equivalent of a purple dragon, able to use the four primary elements from their world. Spyro still found it odd, though, that electricity was basically a sub-element of fire while air was its own element altogether.

"So, exactly how many more times are we going to be stuck in this loop? Because let me tell ya', after the five hundredth time you're awake for it, things get rather repetitive," Sparx said, crossing his arms.

Jenny merely chuckled at the dragonfly's comment, putting her hands behind her head. "Shoot, please. Five hundred loops ain't nothing. Come back to me when you've done around fifty thousand something of 'em, and _then _you can tell me about how repetitive things get."

_"Fifty thousand!?"_ Spyro and Sparx exclaimed in unison, reeling back from the incredible number.

Though Cynder said nothing, her eyes went wide as she let that sink in. Jenny just scratched her cheek as she looked up in response.

"Give or take," she said nonchalantly before looking back down at the group. "Granted, I'm one of the older loopers. Heck, I think Ranma, the first looper, is well past his one millionth loop by now."

The group stood silent with eyes wide. One million... One million loops someone had to go through. How the hell were they suppose to last that many loops!? They'd barely kept it together during all their loops so far!

"Th-that..." Spyro stuttered, his face still frozen in disbelief. He struggled to come up with something to respond with before finally his head dropped as his body went limp.

Jenny watched as Spyro fell to the ground, with Cynder and Sparx quickly going over to his side to comfort him. Jenny blinked. "I take it ya'll are looping during a bad time in your life?"

Sparx glanced over to Jenny, a flat expression on his face. "Lady, you don't even know the _half _of it."

* * *

Jenny whistled as Sparx finished explaining how their original timeline went.

"Man, that's quite the troubled tale," she said, her voice rather inappropriately light compared to the rather dark story she had just been told. 'Troubled' was putting it lightly.

"And this one here was possessed for the first good part of it?" Jenny asked, glancing over to Cynder.

Seeing Cynder cringe slightly, Spyro glared at Jenny. "It wasn't her fault!"

"Woah, easy now!" Jenny said, placing her hand in front of her defensively. "I've been through enough loops now to know being brainwashed and crazy ain't fun for no one involved."

Spyro calmed down a bit hearing that Jenny wasn't going to hold that against Cynder, though he did notice that she was looking at Cynder curiously.

"So, I take it by the fact that she's here now and not tearing the world a new one, this is a variation loop?" Jenny narrowed her eyes nervously as Spyro glared at her, only realizing her poor word choice after she had spoken.

"No. Thankfully, Cynder's managed to figure out a way to escape her fate through these loops." If there was one thing Spyro was grateful for because of this mess, it was that.

Jenny smiled, placing her hands on her hips.

"Well, good for you!" she said enthusiastically. "It's always nice to hear of good people escaping bad fates because of these loops. About the only really good thing to come from these loops, really."

There was a pause, as neither side said anything. Finally, Jenny gave a sly smile as she narrowed her eyes. "So, what kind of crazy shenanigans have ya'll been up to during these loops?"

Spyro and Cynder glanced at each other over the question, though Sparx was quick to voice his complaints. "Not much, thanks to my brother here! Other than having his girlfriend along for the ride, he seems dead set on putting himself through hell time and time again!"

"Sparx!"

Jenny scratched her head. "Wait, you mean to tell me you've mostly been following the same pattern for the past hundreds of loops?"

Spyro glanced at Jenny, a confused look on his face. "Well...yeah. I mean, what if the loop breaks?"

Jenny narrowed her eyes before she tilted her head. "Hoo boy. Sounds like you have a bad case of Setsuna syndrome there."

"Setsuna syndrome?"

Jenny shook her head before she reached up into the air and her hand disappeared through a small wormhole that opened up. Seeing the group's confused and amazed reactions as she pulled out a piece of paper from it, she chuckled.

"Don't worry, I'll teach ya'll about pocket space soon enough," she said with a smile before she looked down at the paper.

"Anyway, ahem, Setsuna Syndrome: 'A thankfully rare state of mind where the individual is convinced that a specific sequence of events will 'cure' what is wrong with the universe and makes efforts to railroad those events into place. Effectively the opposite of Sakura Syndrome in a sense, and a mindset loopers tend to abandon once informed about the nature of the loops by their local admin or another more experienced looper. As such, this condition is generally attributed to local Loop Aware entities with 'preservation of the timeline' on their agenda and a hefty dislike for the derailing shenanigans that loopers often get up to. Named for Setsuna Meiou, aka Sailor Pluto, from the 'Sailor Moon' universe, who is one of the earliest recurring examples of this mindset.'"

The group was silent at Jenny's lengthy explanation. Finally, crossing his arms, Sparx said what they were all thinking. "In English, please."

Jenny sighed, placing her hand on her head. "Basically, the way ya'll did things the first time isn't always the best way. I mean, Cyndy here managing to escape her fate is already infinitely better than her ending up brainwashed and crazy, right?"

"Of course!" Spyro said, jumping up with a stern look.

"Then calm down a little, then. I'm sure the admins will warn everyone before they hit the play button on the Multiverse again. Ya'll don't have to do the same darn thing _every _loop!" Jenny said with a smile. "Frankly, I'm surprised ya'll managed to last this long without going stir crazy from monotony."

"See! I told you!" Sparx said, floating in front of Spyro and pointing his finger at him. "I told you we didn't have to do the same thing every loop!" Sparx grinned before he flew into the air. "Oooh, I have so many things I've wanted to do! Let's see how much of a chatter box 'ol Volteer is when I slip some spider-webbing into his food..."

"Woah, hold up there, bug boy!" Jenny said, sitting up and narrowing her eyes at him. "Prankin's all fine and dandy there, but make sure ya'll don't go developing Sakura Syndrome there!"

"'Sakura Syndrome'? The heck's that?" Sparx said, turning around and looking down at Jenny.

Jenny sighed. Reaching into her pocket space, she pulled out another paper.

"Ahem. Sakura Syndrome: 'A rare state of mind where a looper is convinced that none of their actions will have any consequences past the current loop, including interactions with other loopers, combined with a general disregard for restrictions or laws, of morality or otherwise. This can lead to traumatic experiences for those interacting with them, especially the loopers who have to remember it. Named for Sakura Haruno from the 'Naruto' universe, who is the biggest example of this state of mind.'"

Once again, the group went silent. Sparx pointed his finger at Jenny. "Let me get this straight... Do you just carry around papers explaining every little obscure disorder or something?"

Jenny frowned, placing a hand on her head.

"Let's just say that, due to my rather _unique _situation as a looper, I tend to visit a lot of worlds who are still new to this," she said in a slightly sheepish tone.

"Anyway, what I'm basically saying is, a few pranks are fine every now and then to help keep ya'll sane, but don't overdo it. You do _not _want to end up like Sakura," she said, crossing her arms and shivering slightly. "I've met her a few times in my travels, and let me tell you, that girl's become nuttier than all the nuts on Yggdrasil combined!"

Another silence followed as the group looked amongst themselves, though Sparx crossed his arms again. "So... What exactly are we supposed to do, then?"

Jenny paused before she looked up at the sky. "Well, the way I see it... So long as no one's in any serious danger or harm, a few pranks to break things up isn't bad. Just don't cause a Borg outbreak like I heard Sakura did that one loop, and ya'll should be fine."

Jenny smiled as she looked back down at the group. The confused looks on their faces made her sure she wouldn't have to worry about them doing such a thing. She got up and stretched, picking up her staff.

"Anyways, considering you've been fightin' this Malefor guy for so many loops, why don't ya'll take a break? I'll go tell Ignitus that, sadly, there are no dragons here," she said, putting her staff behind her neck and resting her arms on it.

"B-but, what about the war? The world breaking apart?" Spyro asked, getting up defiantly.

"Just leave that to me," Jenny said, giving a confident wink. "Me and this here Intelligent Device have been through a fair share of apocalyptic wars through these loops." Jenny smirked, twirling the device before stamping it into the ground. "By the way, if you encounter Nanoha in any loop, you should totally pick one of these bad boys up. She always has a few spares on her for anyone who wants one, and I heard they've actually fitted a few specifically for dragons after they met Toothless."

Spyro shook his head. He had no idea what these 'Intelligent Devices' were, or who this Toothless dragon was. All he was focused on was how willing Jenny seemed to be to go off into war, a fact Spyro had only accepted because he'd heard how desperate things were, and he was the only one who could possibly turn the tides.

"A-are you sure? I mean, I saw you take down those apes, bu—"

"No buts," Jenny said, giving the dragon a stern glare. "It'll be a new experience for me considering this is my first time in this loop, which, _trust me_, is a _very_ rare thing these days. Besides, I'm actually _much _stronger than I look," she said, holding up her left arm, which had three bracelets on it.

"Um...nice bling?" Sparx asked, rubbing his head.

Jenny smirked. "They're power limiters, bug boy. Trust me, after enough loops, you're going to want a pair of these soon enough to make battles _actually challenging _again."

"When I take these puppies off, I can give a non-loopin' Frieza a run for his money. Who, in case you didn't know, destroys planets as a _hobby_," she said with a rather smug smile, though it quickly disappeared. "Though, I still can't hold a candle to Nanoha. Girl has ten of these darn things on each arm, and _still _causes loop crashes with that 'Starlight Breaker' of hers..."

Spyro looked at Cynder, who had a rather curious look on her face. Spyro paused before he looked at Sparx, who was practically _begging _with the expression on his face. Spyro hesitated before he looked at Jenny. "I-I guess if you don't mind."

Jenny snapped her fingers, a wide grin on her face. "Ain't no trouble at all! Just leave everything to Everywhere!"

With that, Jenny darted off out of the swamp. Spyro sat down. This loop had been rather..._interesting _so far. They finally knew what was going on, at least. Spyro still wasn't sure what to think about this mess, and now other universes were getting involved. Or rather, _they _were getting involved with other universes.

Spyro shook his head. This was all so confusing...

Looking over to Cynder, he saw a slight smile on her face and smiled in return. Sparx had already darted off back home, practically doing loop-the-loops as he flew.

Now that he thought about it, a vacation from the war _did _sound pretty good right about now.

* * *

**Classic Loop 2.0:**

Some loops were weirder than others.

Spyro already had a good idea of the fact that there were other universes out there, and that occasionally loops would fuse together for whatever reason...

But seeing his best friend as a miniature Pegasus was still weird.

Sparx smirked, still glancing over his yellow-furred body. His mane and tail were short and a silver-ish grey, with two tuffs of his mane at the front sticking straight up like his antennas used to. Sparx glanced over to Spyro. "I don't know about you, but so far I'm liking this loop."

"Easy for you to say. You weren't turned into a baby."

Spyro frowned, barely coming up to Sparx's knees as he walked on all fours. At least he could somehow still talk, but being a baby once was already enough for him. The fact that his appearance had got him tackle-hugged by a pegasus earlier that day hadn't helped, either. He was supposed to be one of the Dragon Realm's greatest heroes! A totally awesome dragon all around! _He was not supposed to be cute!_

Spyro sighed as he looked around the library that was in this hollowed-out tree. There were more multicolored miniature horses everywhere. For whatever reason, a pink one that somehow seemed to be even _more _hyper than Agent 9 on a sugar rush had insisted on giving them a 'Welcome to our loop!' party. Spyro shook his head. He didn't mind parties, but considering only three people—sorry, _ponies__—_were aware they were looping, he didn't see much of a point, as it only served to confuse most of the non-looping ponies who were there.

"So, how ya'll likin' our loop so far?"

Spyro and Sparx turned around to see Applejack, a brownish-yellow pony with straw-yellow hair in a cowboy hat, standing there.

"Pretty good so far. Took a bit of getting used to with this new body, but I love the fact that other people besides Spyro can understand what I'm saying for a change," Sparx said with a big grin, sitting down.

Spyro still had a flat expression on his face. "Other than being de-aged to a baby, I guess it's been alright so far."

AJ chuckled, giving a wink. "Sorry 'bout that. I'd get RD to age ya'll up, but any dragons older than ah baby tend to cause quite the panic in Ponyville."

Spyro narrowed his eyes before he glanced at the rainbow-maned pegasus in the background. Rainbow Dash had been the first one to welcome Sparx and him to their loop and explain what was going on. Apparently, Sparx had replaced Twilight, this world's Anchor, as the number one student of this world's ruler, 'Princess Celestia', and Spyro had replaced Twilight's assistant, Spike, who was also a baby dragon.

Also, apparently, when awake in one of their loops, most of Twi's friends had long since learned how to become 'alicorns'—which apparently were the demigods of this world in that they had the abilities of all major pony species, as well as massive reserves of magic. Rainbow Dash had accidentally triggered her transformation while she was racing to where they had 'looped in' to make sure they didn't do anything stupid, and was now using an invisibility spell to hide the newly-acquired horn on her head.

She had also told them about what was going to happen today. Apparently, some not-quite-evil but rather misunderstood alicorn named 'Nightmare Moon' would appear later today to try to plunge the world into an eternal night. Spyro shook his head. If it wasn't for the fact that he was a baby at the moment, he'd torch her butt the second she'd appear.

"So, what do you want us to do about this 'Luna' girl?" Sparx asked, glancing over to Applejack.

AJ placed her hoof to her chin. "Well, we've all come up with several different ways 'ah dealin' with her when she ain't loopin', but considerin' ya'll are new here, do you two have any particular ideas?"

Spyro and Sparx glanced at each other before a devious grin appeared on Spyro's face. He looked back at Applejack. "I think I have an idea."

* * *

Nightmare Moon yelled in rage at the top of her lungs, but no one in the room could hear her. Thanks to a combination of skills learned from that one loop where Spyro had decided to challenge himself, and a bit of reinforcement from RD's new magical ability, the Mare in the Moon who had attempted to plunge the world into eternal night...was currently trapped in a giant bubble.

Spyro smirked. True, he probably could have come up with something better given time, but considering he was still new to this world, he decided to go with something simple.

Rainbow Dash was laughing her butt off, while AJ was trying her best to suppress a chuckle. "Trappin' her in ah bubble. I have ta' admit, it's ah bit simple, but we hadn't thought ah that yet."

Spyro snorted out a laugh. It seemed like this loop would be a rather fun one.

Though, he still wished he wasn't a baby for it.

* * *

**(And then I lose what little followers I have of the fic because ponies. Or maybe I'll gain a few new ones. Hard to tell anymore, really. /shot**

**And now we get into the multiversial shenanigans. Yeah, wanted to wait until the characters got properly introduced to the concept before I started making it a thing, though it ended up restricting me a little this chapter with only two loops because the Legends part went on for a bit longer than intended, and I'm trying to keep these short. Keep in mind, unlike most fics in the Infinite Loops setting, I'm going to try to keep the cross-over shenanigans to a min. I have a few ideas, but it won't be an every chapter thing like most Infinite Loop fics.**

**Loop titles:**

**Legend Loop 2.0: 'Jenny Exposition'**

**Classic Loop 2.0: 'Bubble Mare')**


	5. Fused Loop Shenanigans

**(Chapters beta-read by Riverstyxx. Further comments at the end.)**

* * *

**Legends Loop 2.1:**

Spyro walked along the frozen plains of Dante's Freezer. It had been several loops now since he had encountered Jenny and learned exactly why these loops were happening, as well as a few other tricks Jenny had taught him that apparently all Anchors in their loops possessed. She had even offered to teach them a few tricks and abilities from different worlds she had visited, but for now he declined.

Spyro still wasn't sure what to make of all this. What made it the most irritating was, from what he understood, it was completely out of his control to do anything about it. Even when he had asked Jenny if there was any way to help speed up the repair of Yggdrasil, all she said was that most attempts to do so usually just ended up temporarily 'crashing' the loop and thus, for the meantime, he would have to be placed in another's world until 'the admins' repaired whatever damage he may have accidentally done to his world.

_'Just calm down, will ya? It'll fix itself when it fixes itself. For now, why not figure out what to do with your infinite resets?'_

Jenny's words still rang in his head. She seemed so light and nonchalant, despite experiencing the problems caused by the war in their world firsthand. Even though Jenny had told him she had been to several worlds whose loops were experiencing wars as well—and the people caught in it still managed to make the best of the situation—it still seemed a bit inconsiderate.

"Gah... Spyro, why are we still going along with this? You heard goggles a few loops back."

Spyro glanced at Sparx, not saying anything as he looked ahead. That was another problem he had run into about this. Other than going along with what he knew... He really wasn't sure what else he could, or really wanted, to do.

Except for one thing, though.

"You'll see, Sparx. I have something I want to try out."

Spyro hid in one of the ruined forts, having already handily dealt with most of the apes and specters in the area. Now having some time to concentrate, he closed his eyes and began to focus.

One of the first things Jenny had taught him about being a looper was that each one got their own personal 'Subspace Pocket'. Basically, it was a mini-dimension attached to the world's loopers that allowed them to carry things over from one loop to the next. It was by far one of the most basic abilities a looper could possess, and one that would grow considerably over time.

Spyro barely had enough space in it at the moment to store what he wanted to carry over to this loop, but Jenny had told him that Ranma, the first looper, had managed to expand the space in his so much that he now personally collected 'Death Stars', which were apparently the size of one of the celestial moons.

Spyro wasn't sure if he believed such a thing to be possible, but he did have to admit that Pocket Space was a very useful ability to have. For now, he didn't have too many things he wanted to take back with him each loop, but he could see it coming in handy for the future.

As a mini wormhole opened up next to him, he reached in and pulled out a set of black armor with a golden trim to it. Sparx looked at it, and smirked.

"What? You want to make things even _more _easy on yourself?" Sparx asked sarcastically, crossing his arms. "Hate to break it to you, bro, but you're already taking out a lot of the enemies we face in one hit."

Spyro shook his head. "That's not it, Sparx."

Spyro really wasn't sure what this armor was, or who had made it. All he knew was that, throughout his adventures and the multiple loops he had been in, he had come across a multitude of armor each with their own unique and special abilities. However, none of them possessed as much raw power as the 'Fury armor', as he and the others had taken to calling it. Maybe it was an ancient relic from times gone by. Who knew? All he really knew about it was that, when he put it on, he felt his power increase tenfold.

More importantly, though, it also gave him access to the Convexity element.

Despite the multiple loops he had made—and getting better with the four basic elements out of sheer repetition—it had never really crossed Spyro's mind to try to master the Convexity element. To be honest, he still had no idea what Convexity actually _was, _or even where to begin when it came to learning how to use it. All he knew was that it seemed to come from sheer desperation, as it seemed he was only able access it when things were most desperate.

Now that he had more or less all the time in the world, though, one of the few things he could think of was trying to master all four basic elements, and eventually unconventional elements like Convexity as well. However, there was a specific reason he wanted to master that 'element' before anything else, and he didn't want to wait several hundred loops to test if what he had planned for it would actually work. For now, he was going to take a shortcut.

Placing the helmet on last, Spyro gave a confident grin. It was quickly wiped off his face, though, when the helmet promptly fell over his eyes. Hearing Sparx chuckling at the sight, Spyro raised the helmet up and gave him an annoyed glare. Since he was three years younger than he had been when he'd first found this armor, it was rather loose-fitting. Hopefully, though, that wouldn't mess with its power too much.

Suddenly, the armor started to glow. Spyro's eyes went wide as it started to shrink to a more fitting size.

"Well, that's new. Never knew it did that," he said, glancing over the now-fitting armor.

Not a second later, a faint purple aura surrounded him as he felt his power start to increase considerably.

Sparx paused and scratched his chin. "Wait a second, Spyro. Doesn't that armor drain you of your energy like a dry sponge in water?"

Spyro smirked. That was the main drawback to this armor. For the great power came a great drain to his mana. However, if things went according to plan, he was only going to need one Convexity beam.

Spyro and Sparx heard a shriek in the air. Before Sparx could say anything, Spyro shot out from the fort they were in and took to the air. Sparx had to steady himself from the resulting wind, but once he did, he looked out the window with a sly smile.

"Oh, _I _get what you're up to..."

Spyro had sped things along this loop, though not to the same extreme as he had with the one earlier. Just a few extra minutes to give him time to put the fury armor on before Cynder showed up.

The Terror of the Skies flew not far above him now. It hadn't taken long for Spyro to figure out that, if Cynder didn't show up at his swamp early on in the loop, there was a good chance she wasn't awake for that loop. Ever since, Spyro had always tried to find a way to lessen Cynder's time in that accursed form. Finally, after spending several loops running himself ragged, he may have found a way that was easy on both of them.

Spyro darted in front of 'Adult' Cynder, as they had taken to calling that form. His sudden appearance caused her to fumble to a stop, but once she regained her composure, she let out an evil chuckle.

"Well, well, well. So you're the purple dragon I've been hearing about," she said, narrowing her eyes as a sadistic smirk appeared on her face.

Spyro said nothing as he kept a firm gaze. _'I hope this works...'_

"I hear you've managed to handle our troops with ease. You must be pretty confident then, coming to face me of your own will," she said, keeping her gaze on Spyro. "No matter. Those idiots were always an incompetent lot. I'll make short work of you here and now!"

This was it. As Cynder reeled her head back to let loose a siren scream, Spyro glowed bright purple as he opened his maw. A massive purple beam of energy shot out, completely engulfing Cynder as she let out a shriek and was sent flying.

As Spyro ended the attack, his eyes drooped as he struggled to stay in the air. Placing a paw on his head to steady himself, he quickly shook it. He may have accidentally put more power behind that blast than he had intended.

Quickly snapping back to reality, he looked down to see Cynder falling to the ground, dark smoke trailing off her form as she began to revert back to her real size. Not wasting a second, Spyro darted down after her and grabbed her in midair as the last of the darkness washed from her scales.

Gliding to the ground, Spyro laid Cynder on the snow gently. Barely conscious, she managed to weakly glance at Spyro. "Thank...you..."

With that, Cynder closed her eyes. Placing a paw on her to make sure he hadn't hurt her, Spyro smiled once he saw that she was just resting. He would have preferred to find a way to prevent Cynder from ever experiencing that in the first place when she wasn't looping, but for now, at least he could lessen the time she spent trapped in that nightmare.

* * *

**Classic Loop 2.1:**

It was nice to be back in his world. Equestria was alright, and even though he had finally convinced RD to age him up back to his proper age during that loop, it still had nothing on the Dragon Realms.

Sparx sighed. _"I miss having everyone understand me."_

Spyro chuckled. He couldn't really think of anything to do for this loop, so for now he and Sparx were walking through the Peace Keepers realm, rescuing dragons from stone just like the good old days.

"Well, you can always use these loops to learn how to get over your dragonfly tongue."

Sparx rolled his eyes. _"I guess. I tried a few times before the loops started, but it was a _massive _pain in the butt."_

Spyro snorted, rolling his eyes as they walked up to a nearby portal. "Well, I don't have anything particular planned for this loop. You have any ideas?"

Sparx paused as he placed his hand on his chin. _"Oh, I know! Why not try that thing that lady taught you?"_

Spyro paused. During his time in Equestria, the ponies had actually been rather surprised to find the massive amounts of magic reserves he had due to his scale-color. From what he had gathered, dragons of their world were actually supposed to outright resist magic. AJ had told him he should be glad that Twilight currently wasn't in the loop. Apparently, if she had been there, she wouldn't have let him out of her sight, wanting him to learn multiple spells so she could study how dragon magic worked. Spyro shuddered at the thought of being forced to spend an entire loop doing nothing but studying.

Needless to say, though, for any spells he was actually interested in learning, they were more than willing to teach him a thing or two about how to properly use magic. For the lessons he had managed to stay awake for, he had learned a few spells that could make these loops rather interesting. A big one he had learned was how to access the dreamscape.

Getting Luna to teach him that had been a rather tricky business, considering she hadn't been looping at the time. Thankfully, being the assistant to Celestia's 'number one-student' for that loop had helped. Once she had found out that he could even access the dreamscape to begin with, she had actually been interested to see the extent of what he could pull off. Though, he'd had to promise her _not _to mess around with people's dreams in order for her to consider it.

Of course, he'd had his claws crossed behind his back at the time, but really. Would it matter considering that eventually she wouldn't even remember teaching him in the first place?

Spyro had yet to explore the full extent of these powers, but he had noticed a rather nice quirk to it. He had already discovered that loopers felt _different_ when he saw them in the dreamscape. With practice, he could use this ability to tell if someone was looping. Would come in handy, especially when it came to plans for pranks to pull in the current loop.

"Alright then. Be nice to know if Hunter's awake for this loop. Might give me some ideas on what to do," Spyro said as he sat down on the ground. "Now then... Let's see if I actually remember how to do this."

Spyro closed his eyes and focused, channelling his magic as he became engulfed in a soft purple glow. Letting his mind float throughout the Dragon Realms, he looked for anything that felt different than usual.

_'Hmm... Darn, doesn't look like Hunter's awake for this loop. Ah well. I'm sure I'll come up with something...eventual...'_

Though his eyes were closed, Spyro's expression became increasingly confused.

_'Wait, that can't be... Oh, horse apples!'_

Spyro shook his head. He had hoped that Equestria's speech expressions wouldn't have rubbed off on him while he was there, but he had a much greater reason to worry. He looked over to Sparx, who an amused look on his face. _"What's the matter, Spyro?"_

Spyro growled and sighed. "Let's just say I owe you five hundred gems now."

_"Aha! Told ya!"_Sparx said, pointing his finger at Spyro. _"Told you she was looping!"_

Spyro frowned, narrowing his eyes. He didn't know what annoyed him more. The fact that he now knew for sure Ember was in the loop, or the fact that he'd lost a bet to Sparx.

Sparx grinned. _"So, Spyro, want to let your number one fangirl know what the heck is going on?"_

Spyro shook his head. "If it's all the same to you, Sparx, I think I'm going to skip out on taking down Red this loop."

Sparx laughed, rolling his eyes. Spyro scowled. It wasn't like it was his job to inform everyone who was awake that they were in a time loop. If Ember came to the Dragon Realms to ask him about it, then _maybe _he would let that fact slip. For now, though, he would let Hunter have that honor the next time he was awake.

_"Anyways, Spyro... Now what? Want to continue with the base timeline, or do you have something crazy you want to pull?"_

Spyro paused, placing a claw to his chin. "Um... How about doing this realm on your own? Would probably be more of challenge then those small bug colonies you beat up almost every loop."

_"Hey, don't knock it 'til you've tried it. Those robot bugs of the Sorceress' can be real butts sometimes!"_

Spyro chuckled. Despite the comment, Sparx was still interested in the challenge. He gave a wink before flying through the portal. Spyro smirked and lay down as he waited for Sparx to get back. After a few seconds, though, Spyro quickly looked around. Seeing that no one was watching him, he reached into his pocket space and pulled out a red gem. After looking at for a few seconds, he shrugged and attempted to bite into it.

**_CLANG!_**

Tears welled up in Spyro's eyes. His teeth hadn't even put a scratch on the gem. Slowly pulling it out of his mouth, it took him a few seconds before he was able to close his jaw.

_"Oooooow!" _Spyro muttered, glaring at the gem. Exactly how Equestrian dragons apparently ate these things, he would never know.

* * *

**Legends Loop 2.2:**

This had been interesting loop, to say the least. They had been in a few 'fused' loops since the first time with Jenny, but for the most part it had been other people coming into their universe. This was the first time they had ended up in someone else's world.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm liking this so far," Sparx said, looking over his new body.

Normally a dragonfly, Sparx was now a human thanks to this loop. He had short, messy blond hair with two tuffs sticking up in front. He was wearing traditional Viking attire, though he was rather scrawny compared to the Vikings of Berk. He didn't mind too much, though, as this body was still stronger than that of a dragonfly.

Spyro shook his head. He would have voiced his opinions about the world so far...if he had actually been able speak in this loop.

"Yep, really like this universe so far," Sparx said with a smirk.

Spyro growled as Sparx chuckled. Hopefully this loop wouldn't last too long.

"So, Amazon, what's the deal with this world?"

Astrid scowled, punching Sparx in the shoulder. As he let out an 'ow', Astrid shook her head. He had only been there for about an hour this loop, and already he was starting to get on her nerves. This guy may look like Hiccup, but he sounded a _lot _more like Snotlout. She could only hope that, wherever Hiccup and Toothless were, they were having a better time than she was.

"First off, call me another one of your 'witty' names again and I'll do a _lot _worse than a punch," she said, narrowing her eyes. "Secondly, usually Hiccup tames the dragons around our village, and depending on who's awake for the loop, we pretty much do whatever."

Astrid crossed her arms and a smirk appeared on her face. "Considering you look about as intelligent when it comes to taming dragons as Tuffnut and Ruffnut combined, you might want to leave the dragon taming to me."

Sparx frowned, crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes. "Hey, hold up now! I'll have you know I've lived around dragons for pretty much all my life. If anyone's the most suited for dealing with 'em, it'd be me." Sparx pointed to himself confidently as a smug look appeared on his face.

Astrid scoffed. "Oh really? Than how come your dragon doesn't seem all that happy to be with you?"

Sparx shook his head, putting his arm around the back of Spyro's neck. "Ah, old Spyro here's just at that age where his species gets all moody and that."

Spyro narrowed his eyes at Sparx.

"Don't let that fool you, though. Spyro and I are practically brothers." _Technically_, that was true.

Astrid smirked as she raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really?"

"Yeah, really!" Sparx said, before he got up and walked over to Astrid. "Heck, I bet you, by sun down, I'll have all the dragons on this island tamed and peaceful or my name ain't Sparx!" He poked a finger at Astrid's shoulder.

"Then prove it, twinkle!" Astrid said, giving him a shove that caused him to fall back onto his rear.

Frowning, Sparx got up and walked over to Spyro. "Come on, Spyro! We have a bet to win!"

Spyro shook his head. He wasn't sure why, but he had a _very _bad feeling about this...

* * *

Spyro and Astrid looked on in horror, mouths agape as multiple dragons flew around the burning fireball that was once Berk. Astrid had seen a few loopers who had replaced Hiccup for a loop try to tame a dragon, but never before had someone managed to fail on such a massive scale that it caused _almost every single dragon on Berk _to attack the village at the same time.

"U-uh, don't worry! Everything's under control!" Sparx called before he was promptly rammed in the back by a Deadly Nadder and sent flying into a building.

Spyro face-palmed. Thank the ancestors things would go back to normal after this loop ended.

_'Note to self: never let Sparx around dragons from any other universe _**_ever_**_.'_

* * *

**Classic Loop 2.2:**

Ember sighed as she laid in her bed. This was around the one hundredth or so loop she had personally been through. She had thought about going to Spyro to ask what was going on, but so far she had never managed to find him in any of the loops. This was starting to worry her greatly. Either Spyro was looping and something had happened to him, or she was in one of these variation loops like that time she had replaced Spyro on his first three adventures.

Ember shook her head, getting out of bed. As her necklace glowed, a long shower curtain rod she had stored from a previous loop appeared out of it. She used it to push open her door, causing a bucket of water to fall down onto the floor. Flame charged in with a smirk, but it quickly disappeared.

"Oh, come on!" he exclaimed in annoyance. "I swear, one of these days I'm going to get you again!"

Ember chuckled as Flame stomped away, putting the curtain rod back into her pocket space. If there was one good thing about these loops, it allowed her to become wise to any and all pranks her brother could pull on her.

She walked out of her home, telling her mother she'd be back before sundown.

Ember looked around Dragon Village. The villagers were doing pretty much the same thing they did every loop, provided something didn't come up to vary things up for a change. It unnerved her a bit to see these dragons do the same thing over and over. To be honest, she had no idea how she had managed to keep her sanity over these many loops.

She had thought about using these loops to mess with people, if only to give her something to do, but... She shook her head. Even if things would reset once the loop was over, it just wasn't in her nature to be mean like that.

Sighing, she made her way to the nursery. As she walked in, she rolled her eyes and stopped.

_'Three, two, one...'_

Ember held her paw out, catching a baby dragon as he attempted to 'fly' off the doorframe. She glanced down at the giggling hatchling.

"Tammy, what did I tell you about trying to fly off stuff?" Ember said in a firm tone.

"Sorry, Emby. I just really want to fly."

Ember chuckled before heading back into the nursery. Another good thing about these loops was that Ember had become wise to a lot of the antics of the baby dragons at the nursery.

Looking ahead, she saw Mrs. Shoutfire dealing with a group of baby dragons. Ember smiled as Shoutfire looked back, a look of relief on her face.

"Tammy! There you are!"

Ember sat the baby dragon down and he playfully hopped over to his nanny. Ember smiled as she sat down, keeping an eye on the baby dragons for any signs one of them was up to their usual antics.

As the day went on and Ember made sure the baby dragons didn't put themselves in harm's way, she began to think to herself about what she could do with her free time now. She could look for Spyro, if only to put her fears to rest, but Dragon Village wouldn't set up a portal to the Artisan Realm until Red started acting up.

She could possibly try to train herself to be better at combat. She had only barely scraped through that one loop where she was put into Spyro's shoes, and she couldn't even imagine what it would have been like had the loop not ended early and she'd had to fight Red and the Sorcerer. The main problem with that, though, was the Dragon Sensei was very picky about who he would train, so it would likely take her many loops to even _begin _to convince him to take on a weakling like her as a student.

Ember shook her head as she saw a baby dragon, Katy, sneak away from the group. Knowing her, she was likely going to attempt to practice her fire breathing abilities. Not feeling like having a good part of the nursery burn down again, Ember got up and quickly followed after her.

Ember continued to think to herself as she walked. It was then an idea hit her; why she should she only use these loops to solve problems at the nursery? If she was going to be reliving these years for a while now, then why couldn't she use this time to solve a lot of the problems that plagued the village?

A smile appeared on her face. That was actually a pretty good idea. Even if these loops reset everything she did, for now, she at least had something to do. She was going to use this time to make Dragon Village the most peaceful village in the Dragon Realms.

For now, though, she had a greater part of the nursery to keep from burning down.

* * *

**Legends Loop 2.3:**

Once again, much to Sparx's annoyance, Spyro had found that he had fallen into a routine each loop.

If Cynder wasn't awake in a loop, he would follow the baseline events of his original timeline up until the earliest point he knew he would encounter Cynder, and use the Fury armor to break the curse on her early. If she was awake, besides her coming to the Swamp to join his side of the story, they would pretty much follow the base timeline with Gaul taking her place. Pretty much the only differences were Sparx's antics becoming more frequent, and Spyro spending more time devoted to training his abilities.

Spyro took deep breaths as he stood in front of a training dummy. He had to practice using the Convexity element at a time he knew none of the guardians would walk in on him, as him practicing this element seemed to bother them greatly. It kind of hurt having his mentors worried that he might end up like Malefor because of that element being his personal favorite, but he was mostly willing to forgive them. The only times he could train were early on in the loops when they had yet to really get to know him, so they really didn't know better.

As he focused, a faint purple aura surrounded him. He could feel it, the raw power of Convexity. The problem was trying to use it, to focus it into an attack. Spyro opened his mouth, trying to will it out like the other elements, but all that came out was an exhaling breath.

Spyro growled, letting his head down as he took several deep breaths. This would be easier if he had a Convexity guardian to teach him, but he would be damned if he would go to that dragon for anything. Sighing, Spyro shook his head before he began to concentrate again.

"Spyro?"

Spyro nearly jumped out of his scales when he heard someone speak up. Looking back, he saw Cynder standing next to the doorframe with a shy expression on her face. Spyro was rather surprised. Cynder wasn't awake for this loop, so she shouldn't have been here at the training room at this hour. Nonetheless, Spyro quickly softened his expression.

"What is it, Cynder?"

Cynder looked down, unable to make eye contact. Spyro frowned. Even though he did everything he could to make it apparent he didn't hold anything against her while she was the Terror of the Skies in the loops she wasn't awake, it still took her a good long while before she felt comfortable enough to be around him on equal terms.

Cynder looked away, though she did managed to glance at Spyro out of the corner of her eye. "I... I wanted to...to thank you again for saving me."

Spyro smiled, walking over to Cynder carefully so he didn't intimidate her. "It was no problem. When I found out you were a young dragoness under a spell, saving you from it was the first thing I had on my mind." Technically, that was the truth.

Cynder smiled, though she still had trouble making eye contact with him. Admittedly, that line had sounded a bit corny now that Spyro thought about it, but it didn't really seem to bother Cynder. They were silent for a moment until he spoke up again.

"Cynder, you do realize that none of that was your fault? You were kidnapped as an egg before you could even fight back, and you did none of that of your own will. The only one to blame here is the Dark Master."

Cynder's eyes drooped, and she looked away with a sigh. "I know, but... My body still committed all those horrible acts, and even though I was aware of it, I couldn't do anything to stop it. I was too weak. I have to take some responsibility for those actions because of it..."

Spyro frowned. He really wished that, throughout all the loops he'd gone through, there was some sort of possible conversation they could have that would finally convince her she wasn't evil early on. If only there was a way he could outright prevent her from becoming that when she wasn't awake.

It was then did a thought occurred to Spyro.

"Uh, Cynder?" he asked, trying to think of the correct way to word this. He probably should have waited until Cynder was awake to ask this, but if there was a chance he could learn this sooner, he would take it. "I know this may be a hard question for you to answer, but I don't suppose you know the place you were cursed at?"

Cynder froze up for a second, the idea of having to remember those horrid memories not a comforting thought. "W-why do you ask?"

Spyro shook his head before he gave a sympathetic frown. "Well, if they're using that place to do stuff like that to dragons, it might be worth checking out so we can hopefully stop that for good."

Cynder paused before she looked down and closed her eyes.

"W-well... I was only there a few times. Once when I was... Well, you know," Cynder said, barely opening her eyes as she flinched at the memory. "And I only went back there occasionally in order to get orders from the ape king, Gaul. I don't fully remember what the place was like, though. All I know was that it was in a giant mountain."

_'Likely the Well of Souls,'_ Spyro thought, cringing a bit.

Thanks to his many repeat adventures, he had a general idea of how to get there. However, it was still a long way from the Dragon Temple even if he cut out the antics with the sky pirates and the Chronicler. On top of that, Cynder had mentioned once while she was awake that she usually didn't have much time when a loop started before she was turned into the Terror of the Skies. Even if Spyro booked it as fast as his wings would carry him, he likely still wouldn't make it in time.

"Spyro?"

Spyro snapped back to reality as he realized that Cynder was still in front of him, giving him an odd look. "Spyro, you're not thinking of going there now, are you?"

Spyro shook his head. "No, not yet. I still have to rescue the other guardians, after all."

Cynder gave him a concerned look. It was one of the rare instances she had been able to make eye contact with him during an early part of the loop. "Spyro, listen to me. I may not fully remember what that place was like, but I do know that it's one of the Dark Master's main fortresses. A good portion of the Dark Master's army is held up there. You may be good at fighting apes, but there's no way you'll make it past some of the nightmarish monsters that are held up there."

Considering he'd done exactly that even in the original timeline—and after several loops now he had even managed to one-shot even those specters riding those damn ghost horses in armor—he knew that he easily could by this point. Regardless, there was no way non-awake Cynder could know that, so Spyro decided not to worry her.

"I know, it's just that...the idea of the Dark Master possibly doing that to other living beings... He truly is nothing but a monster."

Cynder gave a nod of agreement. "Truer words were never spoken."

A silence followed before Cynder looked away. "Well, I better be going. I promised Ignitus I would help clean up the temple... Doesn't even begin to make up for a fraction of what I've done, but at least it's a start," she said as she turned around to leave.

Spyro smirked as he watched Cynder take one last glance at him before she left. He wasn't exactly sure why she had come to the training room this loop when she'd never done so before, but he was glad she had. Now he knew what to do for the next few loops. He wasn't sure if this would even be possible, but he did have a plan for the next few loops. It wasn't going to be easy, but one thing was for sure. He was going to be seeing the Chronicler a lot more in the future.

Hiding above the doorframe, Sparx grinned. From the confident smirk on his brother's face, it looked like the usual routine was going to have a major shake-up for the next few loops.

* * *

**Classic Loop 2.3:**

Spyro pressed up against a wall in the Artisan Realm, leaning his front paws against it as he stood on his rear legs. He let go of the wall. Legs wobbling, he stumbled back, trying to keep his balance as his 'arms' flailed wildly in an attempt to keep him upright. Managing to steady himself, Spyro paused. A few seconds passed without him falling flat on his behind and he smirked. Feeling confident, he took a step forward.

Not a second later, he found himself flat on his back.

Frowning, he glanced over to a few nearby dragons who were standing up straight on their hind legs like it was no problem.

"How the heck do they do that?" he muttered before he rolled onto his stomach.

Sparx chuckled, looking down at his friend as he rolled his eyes.

_"I take _it that _some_one is in a _hurry _to grow up?" Sparx said, his normal kazoo-like pronunciations managing to have a somewhat more understandable tone to the untrained ear.

Spyro smirked, resting his head on his paws. "Give me a break, Sparx. Considering how many loops we've been through, I could only guess by this point, if time were working normally, I'd be waaaaaaay past the point where I would have already learned how to walk on two paws by now."

"Fair enough," Sparx said with an amused expression before flying down and resting next to Spyro.

Spyro smiled. "I have to say, Sparx. You're really starting to get a handle on your dragonfly tongue."

"Th_an_ks. You'd _be _surprised at how going through _a loop _where people can actually _understand _you can properly _motivate some_one."

Spyro and Sparx chuckled. Spyro rolled over onto his back, looking at the sky. Sparx flew into the air. "So. What _did _you have planned for this _loop?_"

"Not much, really. Now that I got Gnasty out of the way in this loop, I was mostly planning to try to learn how to walk on two legs, take the part where I was supposed to fight Ripto off, that kind of stuff," Spyro said lazily, stretching a bit as he placed his forelegs behind his head.

Sparx raised an eyebrow. "What about Ripto?"

"Don't worry, Sparx. I told Hunter my plan the last time he was awake. I don't think we'll have to worry about Ripto anytime soon."

* * *

In Winter Tundra, the group of Hunter, the Professor, and Elora stood next to each other, exchanging confused and awkward glances. The Professor was testing out his super portal as per usual, and when it came time to enter the coordinates, instead of suggesting his birthday like he usually did, since Spyro had wanted to take a break, Hunter had decided to enter some new co-ordinates. As suspected, they hadn't ended up with Ripto attempting to take over Avalar this time. However, what _had _come out of the portal had shocked even Hunter.

"Where the heck are we!?" Flame exclaimed, throwing his forelegs into the air as he sat up.

Ember just looked around the realm in confusion. In all the loops, _this _had certainly never happened before. As Hunter looked on at the pair of confused dragons, he scratched his head.

_'Huh. Bianca's birthday leads to Dragon Village. Learn something new every loop.'_

Hunter sighed. He hoped Ember wasn't awake. Spyro had personally appointed him the task of explaining what was going on with the realms should he run into her while they both were awake. Considering he was terrible at explaining things, that was easier said than done.

* * *

**?:**

_"'All About Looping: By Saraswati and Iris. Edited by Seshat' ..._Seriously?"

"Hey, it's better than the loopers going in blind before someone who actually knows exactly what's going on explains it to them."

"I know, Zephyr. Still... Do we really need a _'Looping for Dummies' _book? Couldn't we just, ya' know, _actually tell them _what's going on?"

"It's easier this way, and doesn't take as much time away from the repairs to Yggdrasil. Of course, it would go a lot quicker if you actually pulled your weight to begin with."

"Hey! Making sure their universes don't poop themselves when a loop begins is a lot of work in and of itself!"

"And yet, us other admins still find time to make sure we eventually won't need these loops at all. I would expect you to learn from the others."

"Yeah, yeah. I can take the hint."

"Sure you can. That's why I have to pull double the work to make up for your lack of effort." In the void, Zephyr sighed. "In any case, just make sure all the current loopers in the universes you watch over get a copy of that. I don't want to have to help you should one of them pull off something that causes a loop crash."

The other being groaned.

"Fine. I think it's about time both the Dragon Realms met their admin, anyways..."

* * *

**Legends Loop 2.4:**

It was always interesting having someone visit their loop. It seemed like it was starting to become more frequent ever since the loop with Jenny, and some of the results had been rather interesting. For the most part, a lot of them wanted to help, considering the state of their loop—not to mention that, considering Spyro and his companions were relatively new to the multiverse, unlike other loopers, they didn't have a millennium of experience under their belts to end major baseline problems quickly.

Spyro didn't really like the idea, feeling like it was his burden to bare, yet most loopers insisted. Some said Spyro and his companions needed a break from the war, some wanted something new to do in their dull looping lives, and others insisted just because their sense of justice was so strong that they couldn't just stand by and watch.

However, as much as he didn't like others taking on his burden, Spyro had to admit that sometimes the results were just entertaining to watch. After all the hell they had caused before the loops had even started, seeing the apes flee in terror every time their current guest looper and his 'special weapon' showed up was just so damn satisfying.

"I still have no idea how that thing doesn't collapse under its own weight," Cynder muttered, looking on from the walls of Warfang with eyes wide.

It was yet another 'King of Terror' loop, though his reign hadn't lasted long this time when he'd met his untimely end in the form of a giant fist to the face.

Sparx buzzed by Cynder's head, stretching as he glanced at her from the corner of his eye.

"Why doesn't the Destroyer collapse under its own weight? Why does our world keep fusing with other worlds? Why are we in a time loop?" Sparx rambled on, crossing his arms. "Really, I stopped questioning things long ago back in the baseline when my brother turned out to be a legendary dragon destined to save the world."

Spyro couldn't help but chuckle as Cynder shot Sparx an annoyed glare. He looked back at the battle going on not far from Warfang, actually rather excited at seeing how it was going.

On one side stood the Destroyer who, despite the adversary standing in its way, was more focused on trying to complete its walk around the world than actually fighting. On the other side stood a large bipedal metal being, sporting a white, red, black and blue color scheme. It was knight-like in appearance, and was as almost as tall as the Destroyer itself. The metal giant merely smacked away the small magma monsters that were attempting to attack it, focusing almost completely on the apocalypse monster and making sure it made almost zero progress in its mission.

Atop the head of the giant metal being, a brown dragon sat in a small protective dome. Under his helmet, which had been altered to fit a dragon, Kouji growled. So far this loop had been an interesting tale he could utterly break thanks to his giant mecha, but for once there was a being here who was proving to be quite the challenge.

"Mazinger! _ROKETTO PANCHI!"_

As if following its pilot's command, the Mazinger raised and pointed its fist at the Destroyer. The joint just before its elbow flashed before its fist detached and went flying at the Destroyer. Smashing through it like a hot knife through butter, it left a giant hole through the beast before the fist flew up into the air, homing back to the Mazinger and reattaching itself.

Watching as the Destroyer started to fall to pieces, Kouji wasn't fooled in the slightest. After the last few times he'd smashed this thing to bits, he wasn't surprised that, not a second after he'd caused it to collapse, it quickly reformed good as new. Growling at the beast's unwillingness to stay down, he let out a yell as he piloted the Mazinger to charge right at it, landing several punches and knocking it back considerably.

From the sidelines, Sparx looked on dully. "I think its been like an hour now since he started fighting that thing. Wonder how long he's going to keep this up before he realizes Malefor's just going to revive it every time he smashes it?"

Cynder shook her head. "Not sure. In any case, we should use this time to take Malefor down so it'll hopefully be taken down for good for a change. Spyro..."

Cynder turned to Spyro to tell him her plan, but she paused when she noticed the look on his face. His eyes were wide and had an odd spark to them, and he had an almost giddy smile on his face. Cynder couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

"Spyro...?"

"Huh? O-oh!" Spyro said, jumping slightly as a blush appeared on his face. "R-right! Beat Malefor again! Got it!"

Cynder tilted her head, noting Spyro's eyes darting every which way as he tried to hide the blush on his face. Somehow, she got the feeling that Spyro was trying to hide something. Nonetheless, she brushed it off.

"Let's get going then," she said as she took off.

Through the many loops they had experienced, after some rather painful mess-ups, Spyro had found a way to get through the Belt of Fire without Ignitus having to sacrifice himself. Taking one last look at the battle going on behind them, he felt a sudden surge of energy. Smirking, he took to the air. He was going to make sure to give Malefor one hell of a battle, and with any luck, maybe he wouldn't have to pull the world back together this time around.

* * *

**Classic Loop 2.4: (feat: Barryc100588)**

Mac's Bar was open for business and full of loopers, including a certain purple dragon, and he was telling a story about one of his adventures to the audience. The Crusaders were especially captivated.

"I had just entered the third area of the Forgotten Worlds, Evening Lake, and I decided to go look and see if there was anyone captive there, too. I figured the Sorceress would do that, if Sergeant Bird and Sheila the Kangaroo were anything to go on. And sure enough, in the central tower of the area, I found a yeti in a cage with my old 'friend' Moneybags the Bear 'guarding' him."

Apple Bloom chose this moment to interrupt. "It's incredible how, how..."

"Duplicitous!" Sweetie piped up.

"Um, what does that mean, Sweetie?" Scootaloo asked.

"It means to be deceptive or double-dealing. In this case, Moneybags agreed to keep the animals the Sorceress captured locked up, but also agreed to free those same animals if paid," Sweetie explained.

Scootaloo coughed what sounded like "dictionary" under her breath.

Spyro chuckled. "He is duplicitous, Apple Bloom. Now back to my story. I paid him a thousand gems to free Bentley, and after calling him an—and I quote—'avaricious, duplicitous, larcenous ursine', he clubbed Moneybags with his club and inviting me into his world."

Twilight winced. "He sounds pretty violent."

Rainbow chose then to speak up. "I don't know about you, Twilight, but if I was locked up by someone for money, and that same person freed me for money, I'd get pretty violent too."

Other loopers in the room were nodding in agreement.

Spyro nodded. "Each of the captive animals were violent to Moneybags, if you recall."

* * *

**(Oh hai, Infinite Loops. Been a while.**

**Anyways, remember in the last chapter where I said cross-overs wouldn't be that frequent? Yeah... Story behind that. **

**The HTTYD loop was the only cross-over loop I had planned for this chapter, but someone had another FiM loop they had written which made it four classic loops to three legends loops, something my OCD would not allow, I had to add an extra legends loop to balance it out... and sense a lot of the 'baseline' loops I have planned require Cynder to be over her inital shock over all this, I had to go with a fused loop I had planned for a later chapter. Again, I promise cross-over loops won't be an 'every other loop' thing like most Infinite Loop fics.**

**Also, speaking of loops written by other people, the Spyro loops now has its own Space Battles thread! If anyone has their own Spyro loops they'd like to add, the link to it is on my profile under the section detailing this fic. I'm also thinking of making a FF.N thread for this for anyone who doesn't have a Space Battles account.**

**W****ould also like to thank a user there by the name of Conceptulist for the whole 'Spyro learns about the dream scape' idea. My original plan for having him tell when someone was awake in a loop involved him reverse engineering the EoH (how the FiM loopers tell if someones awake), but admittedly that didn't make much sense. Plus, this allows for some rather _interesting _loops in the future. For those wondering how Spyro could learn such a thing in the first place, I plan on explaining that in a future chapter.**

**Legends loops:**

**2.1: Infinity plus one armor.**

**2.2: How ****_not _****to train your dragon.**

**2.3: A new plan takes form.**

**2.4: Kouji can break loops on the fly! He can wreck major threats! In his robot man! Mazinger Z! /shot**

**Classic loops:**

**2.1: Taste like toothache.**

**2.2: The plan for a peaceful village.**

**2.3: Wonder what Spyro's birthday would lead to?**

**2.4: Sweetie is the best dictionary. /shot)**


End file.
